Into the Forest Again! Ferocious Wild Beasts by Chris Wormell

A bear was strolling in the forest one day....when he met a small boy, sitting on a tree stump, looking rather sad.

"What's the matter?" asked the bear.

"I'm lost!" sniffed the boy, "and I am in terrible trouble."

"Tell me why that is," inquired the bear.

"Because my mom said I must never go into the forest," replied the boy, "but I did, and now I'm lost!"

"Don't worry," said the bear with a laugh. "I'll soon show you the way out. The forest isn't so bad, you know."

"It IS!" declared the boy. "My mom says the forest is full of ferocious wild beasts."

Mom's advice is maybe a bit over the top, but in this case she is RIGHT! This forest is full of beasts. The boy in short order meets up with a bear, an elephant, a lion, a wolf, a python, and a crocodile--all potentially ferocious wild beasts indeed. Curiously, though, although the boy quotes his mom's apt description to each one, the forest beasts don't seem to recognize themselves. Here's the boy's conversation as he encounters the elephant:

"Have a snack?" said the elephant. "Would anyone like a banana?"

"You'd better watch out, Elephant," advised the bear. "This young man tells me there are ferocious wild beasts on the loose."

"Oh, dear!" said the elephant, dropping his banana. "Are they very wild?"

"The wildest beasts EVER!" said the boy. "They're so big they could step on you and squash you just like that!"

"But, er...they couldn't squash an elephant, could they?"

"Easily," replied the boy.

"Oh, CRUMBS!" gulped the elephant. "You wouldn't mind if I tag along with you, would you?"

One by one, the lion, wolf, python, and crocodile hear themselves described graphically by the boy and one by one the wild animals cast furtive glances among the darkening trees and seek safety in numbers. "The nighttime is when the ferocious wild beasts come out to hunt," points out the boy, rather proud of his special knowledge.

But then the wanderers hear a sound, one capable of striking fear into the hearts of any earthly creature. The animals flee, but the brave boy stands his ground:

It was not a ferocious, wild beast at all. It was something MUCH worse!

It was a wild, ferocious MOM!

With clever echoes of hunting heffalumps with Winnie the Pooh and a sly nod to Where the Wild Things Are, outstanding artist Chris Wormell's beautifully illustrated and wryly told latest, Ferocious Wild Beasts! (Knopf, 2009), with its humorous touches of British irony and lovely watercolored pictures, is sure to elicit appreciative chuckles from young readers and story time listeners. A real winner, this one is.

Night Flight: While the World Is Sleeping by Pamela Duncan Edwards

Come, little sleepyhead, come with me.
I have left my hill, high in the tree.
Oh, what wondrous things we will see.
While the world is sleeping.

A giant white owl invites a sleepy child to fly along on a dreamlike journey among the creatures of the night. The bright pajama-clad tot gladly opens her bedroom window and climbs aboard the owl's ample back and immediately finds herself in a midnight world where not all are sleeping, the world of nocturnal woodland creatures.

Silver fish are swimming past,
In the river running fast.
Will they reach the sea at last?
While the world is sleeping.

A bright-eyed fox is on the prowl.
He hopes to take a juicy fowl,
Until he hears the guard dog howl.
While the world is sleeping.

The entranced child watches baby rabbits at play, beavers at work on their dam, and a wise mouse mother warning her babies of the dangers all around while she soars on the downy owl's back through the night, until at last it is time to return to the sleeping world at home.

And soon the rooster's song will warm.
Dark is going, it is almost dawn.
The day is waiting to be born.
The world has finished sleeping.

Best-selling author Pamela Duncan Edwards' anti-lullaby is both dreamlike reverie and thrilling night adventure in her brand-new While The World Is Sleeping (Orchard Books, 2010). Duncan's simple lyric verse is artfully set forth by Daniel Kirk, (author/illustrator of the best-selling Library Mouse, Abrams, 2007) in lively but fantasy-inspired illustrations of the separate lives of creatures who, like the young child, are lovers of the night, while in his final painting we see the golden sun rising behind the chicken coop, the owl, with a farewell look, briefly perched on top, while in the foreground, the sleepy child rubs her eyes and seems to wonder if she has dreamed this sleep-time adventure. Pair this one with Susan Swanson's 2009 Caldecott Award book, The House in the Night,--and sweet dreams to all!