The Quiet Forest

January 1, 2024
A mischievous mouse sets off a chain reaction in a quiet forest. The mouse--who looks a bit like the clever star of Julia Donaldson's The Gruffalo (1999), illustrated by Axel Scheffler, lands in a rabbit's pancakes ("Splat!"), then makes off with the plate. The rattled rabbit disturbs a beaver in its dam, and, amid the splashing, the mouse takes some of the beaver's chewed wood and paper blueprints and builds a little boat. Meanwhile, the beaver's splashing soaks a nearby deer, who runs into a moose. Animals careen one into the next, and the forest gets noisier and noisier, leading to a moment of tension when the moose's grunting awakens a bear slumbering in her den with her cubs--but any fear is quickly allayed when one of the cubs gives Mama a much-needed hug. Animals work together to cheer each other up and make necessary repairs, and there are pancakes for all. The use of onomatopoeia, alliteration, and repetition makes for a lovely read-aloud experience, and the many humorous details in the art (such as the bear's bunny slippers) make rereading a treat. From not-so-quiet to this-is-more-like-it, one gets the sense that the togetherness was the mouse's plan all along. At once fresh and familiar, silly and soothing. (Picture book. 3-7)

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January 8, 2024
It’s “a quiet, nothing-to-do forest,” rendered in pencil and digitally colored illustrations by Cushman (Wombats Are Pretty Weird) as grassy and green, with a placid pond nestled beneath shady trees. But the almost palpable sylvan stillness is quickly interrupted by a “mischievous” backpack-wearing brown mouse who swings on to a rabbit’s plate of extravagantly topped pancakes and swipes the whole dish, triggering a comic cascade of mayhem. Offsay (Challah Day!) assigns each unwitting participant an evocative italicized adjective: the rattled rabbit crashes into a bothered beaver; further down the line, a miserable moose is the result of having its en plein air painting impaled on its antlers. The now “seriously noisy” forest arouses the ire of a sleeping mama bear, but before another raucous response ensues, the forest itself intercedes with a calming, musical breeze: “Whoosh. Swish. Whoosh. Swish.” Everyone regains their composure, kindness is passed back up the line, and the forest is transformed into a lively, congenial community that “isn’t too loud or too quiet at all”—for the moment, anyway. For audiences that love quiet, and those that loathe it, the joyful resolution following this jolt of antic boisterousness should strike a resounding chord. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Nicole Geiger, Full Circle Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Kendra Marcus, BookStop Literary.