Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman.
No complaints here – lyrical rhymed iambic dimeter with lots of anapestic substitutions, occasionally running into trimeter. A cute cozy story with charming illustrations, enhanced by a short moment of growling tension that is amicably resolved. For ages 3-7, so Whale Child is on the older end for it, but he loves it and can listen to it endlessly.
I was reading via Bloglines and I had to come here, and thence to Amazon, and thence to the larger version of the picture, just to figure out what the hell was sitting beside the rabbit. A mole! A mole!
Funnily enough, that’s what Whale Child focused on. His experience of moles is limited to naked mole rats living in warm plexiglass tubes at the Washington Zoo, and this mole looked very off to him. Memo to self: Find a real mole to give him a balanced view of things.
Ah! Perfect age group for me. Thanks, Nic. (a mole? hm.)