Skip to main content

Found

Cover image for Found

Found
by Salina Yoon
Walker Books, 2014
Picture Book

One day Bear finds a toy bunny in the forest which he thinks is “the most special thing he has ever seen.” But worried that the bunny’s family will be missing him, Bear sets out to find the bunny’s owner. As he works hard to return the bunny, he wishes more and more that he could keep him for his own. When the owner belatedly turns up, Bear faces a tough decision and gets a surprising offer. 

This simple story is made special by the way Yoon’s understated text is illuminated by her bright, heavily outlined illustrations. The pictures bring out the cuteness, emotion, and humor of the tale. The yellow and green patches on Bunny’s stuffed body, his heart-shaped nose, and depictions of him riding in a backpack on Bear’s back make him as hard to resist to the reader as he is to Bear. Fun details reveal themselves upon re-reading, such as a little yellow canary that follows Bear throughout the story. The bulletin board of flyers for lost items is hilarious; captions include things like, “Lost: clown nose. Contact: Sad Clown.” “Lost: My train of thought…” “Lost in space. Send help!” Yoon’s well-chosen details are a joy to linger on in this charming tale of warmth and friendship. This would make a great read-aloud to a group.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Faker

Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...

Review: The Bletchley Riddle

  The Bletchley Riddle By Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin New York: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2024. Fiction. 392 pages. It's spring of 1940, Hitler has swept through most of Europe, and people believe England will be next. Half Polish-Jewish, half American Jakob has been recruited from Cambridge to Bletchley Park where they are working on deciphering the enigma machine. Jakob's sister Lizzie, meanwhile, is being forced to move from London to Cleveland to live with her grandmother after her mother disappeared in a 1939 attack in Poland. Lizzie manages to escape the keeper her grandmother sent for her to bring her to America and makes her way to Bletchley, where she's eventually given the task of delivering messages between departments. When secret messages begin appearing with Lizzie's belongings, she must decipher them to find the truth about her mother's past and location, while keeping the secrets away from the MI5 agent that seems a little t...

Dragon Run

Dragon Run by Patrick Matthews Scholastic, 2013.  336 pgs.  Fantasy      Al Pilgrommor is excited for Testing Day, when he will receive his rank, a tattooed number on the back of his neck, and a path forward to his future occupation and life.  He feels confident because his parents were fours on a scale of seven, but he is worried for his friend Wisp who doesn't have much of a chance of scoring above a two at best. But when Al is scored a zero, he not only has no prospects, he may lose his life as the dreaded Cullers are unleashed to kill him and his family to purify the land's bloodlines.  Al's world is ruled by dragons--the lords and supposed creators of humankind--so he thinks that even if he survives, he will have to make his living as a beggar or thief. But when Al sticks up for his Earther friend in front of Magister Ludi, he is drawn into the struggle of a secret organization hoping to destroy the Cullers, and perhaps the dragons them...