In this wordless odyssey, a postprandial nighttime outing turns particularly adventurous for two animal buddies.
With his mouse friend in the front basket, a frog's bike ride down a moonlit country road leads to startling encounters with a fierce-looking but friendly cockatrice, a computer gamer that looks like a bat crossed with a human and, just off a nearby beach, a menacing giant white crab. These creatures are only representative, though, of the many exotic and fantasy animals that Furie strews about each grainy-surfaced scene as he leads his two explorers past open woods, into twisting tunnels underground and through a deserted town decorated with gargoyles on the way to the sea. Surfing back to shore atop a pair of dolphins, the frog and mouse conclude their journey by climbing to a headland to watch a bright sunrise. A foldout poster of the cast (and cockatrice) serves as dust jacket.
Presented in a mix of sequential panels and full-spread views, this easy-to-follow debut tale is rich in both drama and sights that are less dangerous-looking than delightfully strange. (Picture book. 5-7)
