Every summer my family goes camping. It's usually only once, and only
for the weekend, but it's a captivating experience and something to look
forward to all year long. We always camp in the same place, where we
catch newts, hike up mountain trails, roast marshmallows and sing
campfire songs under the stars. We are not allowed to bring our dog.
Luckily, there are no such restrictions in place in Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night, the seventeenth book in the popular series for beginning readers by Cynthia Rylant, author of the Poppleton and Mr. Putter and Tabby
books, and illustrated by Sucie Stevenson. Mudge, the massive, slobbery
dog, goes practically everywhere with his boy Henry, so it would be a
shame to separate them for a trip that promises to be so much fun.
This 35-page story is broken up into three separate sections: Big Bear Lake, A Good Smelly Hike and Green Dreams.
This year, Henry's family is headed for Big Bear Lake, where Henry
excitedly anticipates seeing deer, raccoons and maybe even bears. On
second thought, meeting up with a bear might not be so much fun after
all... Bear or no bear, with so much to explore - and in Mudge's case,
smell - Henry's family is all set for a stimulating vacation, complete
with gorgeous scenery, a cozy campsite (set up by Henry's mom, a former
girl scout), plenty of guitar music (provided by his dad) suitable for
sing-alongs and a sprinkling of celestial bodies just perfect for
star-gazing.
Stevenson's illustrations, while still
cartoonish, convey the beauty of nature well, with pictures of a fish
leaping out of rippling water with a splash, a fawn nestling in
clover-filled grass alongside its mother, a rainbow stretching across
the sky above a waterfall, and a serene starry sky settled comfortably
on a vista of mountains and lakes. Rylant's writing, meanwhile, is
simple but engaging, infecting readers with the excitement of a camping
trip from a safe, bear-free distance.
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