TED, BO AND DIZ

A day at the beach proves surprisingly eventful for three friends in this deceptively low-key debut. Hardly have Ted, Bo and Diz—depicted as small animated plush toys in Chapman’s idyllic seaside scenes—spread their towels on the sand and pushed off in a rubber raft than they come upon a small ice floe carrying a family of polar bears and a baby seal (certainly an unlikely combination). No sooner do they all get acquainted, though, than the floe begins to break up. What to do? The raft is too small for everyone. Fortunately, Diz (a zebra) leaps to safety in time, a friendly pod of passing whales offers the bears and seal a ride back home—and, just when it looks like there’s nothing left to do but pack the picnic basket, up floats an iceberg festooned with penguins! The author’s writing is as calm and simple as his art, wasting no words and once even giving way to a wordless spread. With plenty of action but no sense of real danger, this will be perfect for sharing with younger audiences. (Picture book. 3-6)