The quiet forest

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. (Mar.)

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) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.