Beaver Is Lost

I have to say this book won my heart from the cover because I feel such a sense of wonder when I watch beavers paddle silently through the stream in my local park and I always search for them when I'm on my evening walks. So, when I saw this beaver afloat on some logs with an immense, slightly threatening crowded city just beyond him, I had to open the book to see how things were going to go. Turns out the city is Chicago and beaver has mistakenly landed on some logs that are headed downstream. He rides, twig in paws, down the river and finds himself roaring along the highway on top of a flatbed truck loaded with lumber. Arriving at the lumberyard, beaver takes off and is ably chased by a German Shepherd who isn't appreciative of beaver's presence. The space between the tongue and the teeth of the one and the tail of the other is just enough to create tension and hope simultaneously. Where will beaver's adventure lead next? I'm not going to tell you but you need to know this is a wordless picture book so it can be read by beginning readers and by those who love to look at the pictures best anyway. Talk about context clues. Will he ever see his home again? What stories will he have to tell if he returns safely? It's one day in the life of this explorer and the pencil and watercolor illustrations deftly spin the tale.