One Dark Night

by Lisa Wheeler, Ivan Bates (Illustrator)

Overview

Evenings at home with Mouse and Mole are always safe and cozy, until one dark night they venture outside for a moonlit walk and find something waiting for them. With its satisfying ending, this adventure is a perfect read-aloud for every night.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780152058883
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/01/2006
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.16(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

LISA WHEELER is the author of several award-winning picture books, including Sixteen Cows, One Dark Night, and Mammoths On the Move, which received a Parent's Choice Recommended Award. She lives near Detroit, Michigan. www.lisawheelerbooks.com

IVAN BATES is the well-known illustrator of Just You and Me and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, both by Sam McBratney. He lives with his family in England.

Editorial Reviews

"A very encouraging story in praise of unlikely friendships."—Kirkus Reviews
"Cleverly mixing suspense and humor, this well-crafted book . . . Will surprise, satisfy and spur repeat readings."—Publishers Weekly

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From the Publisher

The circumstances are fraught with trepidation as a few citizens of the forest, at opposite ends of the food chain, meet one another in the dark of the night. Readers meet Mole and Mouse, two chums who share a snug abode, and Bear, who fully fills his BIG GIANT den with BEASTLY growls and jowls, not to mention an outsized hunger. For inexplicable reasons, Mouse and Mole venture into the night: "The two teensy friends / Left their wee tiny house. / 'I'm scared of the dark,' / Mole whispered to Mouse." But stalwart Mouse urges them on: "Through sharp thistle thorns, / Into marsh misty woods." Meanwhile, Bear is gnashing about his abode, working up a voluminous hunger. "I want something to eat / And I want it now," he growls, a full-frontal head-shot filling the page, blowing readers back. He charges out into the night and it looks as though Mouse and Mole will soon be victims of the wrong place at the wrong time. They hear some commotion: "Mole shivered. Mouse shook. / Their fur stood up straight. / The SOMETHING was Bear, / Who grumbled . . . 'You're late!' " Hand in hand, they skip back to Bear's lair for a feast. A very encouraging story in praise of unlikely friendships, told with poetic economy and a nod to the fact that such liaisons are ruefully rare. Bates's (Do Like a Duck Does, 2002, etc.) watercolors, with their touches of waxy tactility, move with surety and character between tension and sweet resolution. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews