Story Snitcher: The Snatchabook by Helen and Thomas Docherty

ONE DARK, DARK NIGHT AT BURROW TOWN,

A RABBIT NAMED ELIZA BROWN

FOUND A BOOK AND SETTLED DOWN

WHEN A SNATCHABOOK FLEW INTO TOWN.

What if night fell and there were no bedtime stories to tell?

That is the situation in the disconsolate warrens of Burrow Town. Bedtime books are vanishing from every bedside. And without bedtime stories, bunnies cannot get to sleep!

Eliza Brown decides that something must be done and vows to track down the dastardly doer of such a dreadful deed. Witnesses report only fleeting glimpses of the tome taker, flying too swiftly to apprehend. So, with singular derring do, Eliza prepares a trap for the evil thief, one baited with the last of Eliza's beloved books.

ELIZA SAW A SHADOW LOOM--
ENORMOUS!--RACE ACROSS HER ROOM.

Screwing up her courage, Eliza manages to collar the perp, only to find it to be a tiny creature who weeps and wails:

"I HAVE NO ONE TO READ TO ME!"

But all's well that ends well, with the residents of Burrow Town pitching in nightly to remedy the little book purloiner's problem, in Helen and Thomas Docherty's The Snatchabook(Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, 2012).  Helen Docherty's breathless versification keeps the story moving, but it is Thomas Docherty's charming illustrations that gives this one its visual appeal, particularly its intrepid little heroine. This tale has a droll, almost retro feel, with the added joke that a story about bedtime stories denied is actually, in itself, a bedtime story. Publishers Weekly says, "... the Dochertys have a winner in this heartwarming tribute to the essential role of bedtime reading in the lives of families."