Bedtime at the Swamp
PreSchool-Grade 1—In this swampy tale set "'neath the fat gold moon," a boy describes what he repeatedly hears: "Splish splash, rumba-rumba, bim bam BOOM!" With shaking hands and a pounding heart, he races through the "sludgy slime" with the mysterious creature at his heels before taking refuge in the branches of a willow tree. The boy's siblings come to retrieve him, followed by two cousins, but all end up high in the tree out of reach of the monster. Then just within arm's grasp of their dreaded adversary, the boy's mother calls for everyone to return; she understands all too well a kid's playful imagination and orders everyone, including "the monster," to get home and take a bath before bed. Lively, colorful cartoon characters set in inky black or deep blue moonlit scenes and offset by crisp, white pages add energy and suspense to the story. The repetitive chorus, a simple rhyming story line that will draw readers in, and the perennial appeal of books that are just "scary" enough make this title an appropriate addition.—Marian Creamer, Children's Literature Alive, Portland, ORCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.