Back In Your Own Backyard : Aberdeen by Stacey Previn

ABERDEEN DIDN'T MEAN TO LEAVE THE YARD--BUT A BALLOON FLOATED BY, SO HE FOLLOWED IT.

"Stay in your own backyard!" Mama had said, and Aberdeen was doing just that until that big red balloon floated by, its long string trailing irresistibly behind it. Aberdeen follows after it, burrowing messily under the fence. He runs through the neighbor's flowers, the string just above his reach, until the balloon dips low. Aberdeen's tail gets tangled in the long string as he leaps for it.

ABERDEEN DIDN'T MEAN TO FLY AWAY.

At first it's exciting to float over the backyards, but Aberdeen begins to worry as he drifts beyond his neighborhood, over a field and then over the woods.

ABERDEEN DIDN'T MEAN TO POP THE BALLOON!

But his little mouse nails are sharp, and the balloon explodes, sending him down, down, into the weeds. Now he's all turned around. Aberdeen didn't mean to wander into the woods, away from home, until suddenly he realizes that he is lost in the darkening woods, where his mama always said there are owls!

ABERDEEN DIDN'T MEAN TO CRY!

One thing just leads to another, in Stacey Previn's Aberdeen (Viking, 2016), as the involuntary little runaway takes an unexpected excursion into the wilds. All ends well, with Mama's worried calls filtering through the twilight woods to where Aberdeen is sitting forlornly, and he's all too happy to explain earnestly that he didn't mean to make Mama worry.

"BUT YOU DID, SWEETIE!" MAMA SAID.

Aberdeen is rightfully repentant, but as Previn makes clear in her jolly, ebullient watercolor illustrations, his adventurous balloon voyage outside the world of fenced backyards is one he won't soon forget. As Publishers Weekly points out, "... sometimes, the offer of adventure is just too good to pass up."

Bunny Avatar: Big, Bad Bunny by Franny Billingsley

Over in the Mouse House Mama Mouse is putting her three little ones down for a nice nap. There are kisses for little Tippy and for little Flurry, but when she comes to the wee bed of Baby Boo Boo--she's GONE!

Outside in the wilds there is cause for alarm. Somewhere OUT THERE is BIG, BAD BUNNY, a creature with long claws (SCRITCH!) and pointy yellow teeth (CHOMP) who stomps through the bushes and ka-splashes and crashes through the mucky swamp, SQUOOZLE!

Oh, no. Mama Mouse rushes out fearlessly, tearing through the bushes and swamp. The way is hard, but Mama Mouse can go anywhere for Baby Boo Boo. "Baby, where are you, Baby?" she calls.

Still BIG BAD BUNNY growls and stomps and roars his way onward, curiously costumed in a yellow onesie with pink polka dots and fuzzy slippers. Wait! Are his gigantic long ears tied to his head with a cute little bow? Could it be.....?

Suddenly, BIG BAD BUNNY ceases his fearful roar.

BIG BAD BUNNY has come to a steep, slippery hill.

Does that stop BIG BAD BUNNY?

YES! BIG BAD BUNNY is lost! Eeek, Eeek, Eeek!

Mama Mouse is right there in a moment. "My BABY BOO BOO! At last I've found you!" she coos.

Her fake ears drooping, BIG BAD BUNNY wipes her eyes and says

"I'm not Baby Boo Boo! I'm not a BABY! I'm BIG BAD BUNNY."

"Oh," says Mama Mouse. "Nice to meet you. Do you want to come home?"

BIG BAD BUNNY (nee Baby Boo Boo) and Mama Mouse crash and stomp and ka-splash and squoozle back home, where BIG BAD BUNNY tiptoes back inside for a belated nap, and Mama tucks her in with an "I love you, Big Bad Bunny, and I always will."

Big Bad Bunny, wittily illustrated by noted artist G. Brian Keras, has a humorous surprise for the reader as the identity of BIG BAD BUNNY is slowly revealed to the observer. Billingsley's text imaginatively reworks the old story of the prodigal runaway with whimsy and affectionate empathy for the little mouse who wants to create a bolder persona for herself.