It takes a team of friends to find a lost book.
Mouse’s bedtime book is missing. He wakes Frank, his canine companion, and they search high and low. Then kitty friend Bella admits that she found the book but, thinking it was missing, she placed it in the clearing. When the book at last turns up – and who has it – offers a big twist to the reader.
Routines are important. They allow certainty in a world that often throws up change and confusion. Knowing, for example, that a favourite book will be read at bedtime can encourage the person in question to keep to good habits like going to bed at a sensible time. It is easier to stick to a routine than to keep good habits without anchor points.
When Mouse’s book goes missing, it isn’t only a story. It is her security.
It is also a book she loves. Readers can feel strongly about favourite books in the same way that people get sentimental about trinkets. The memories attached to a specific copy of a book make replacement copies seem different. Not equal to the original.
Luckily Mouse has friends. There is a quiet and charming humour in watching the group trotting around the garden. This is echoed in the text, especially in the onomatopoeic ‘tramp’ of footsteps.
The illustrations use shape and colour in a way not dissimilar to fuzzy felts but this is highly effective in allowing the reader to follow the characters’ trail. The facial expressions, made up of appearnly simple shapes, tell us that Mouse’s friends are there until the book is found.
The dark and muted colour palette, together with the twinkling stars and closed-up flowers, create a magical nighttime setting.
A reassuring tale that reminds us that, when our usual anchor points go array, we can always turn to our friends.
The Bedtime Book by S Marendaz and Carly Gledhill is available now, from Little Tiger Press, priced £11.99. (Provided for review)
