WILD & WOOLLY

Bighorn meets woolly baa-baa halfway in this “Town Mouse, Country Mouse” variant. Straying from their accustomed territories, Wild and Woolly come nose to nose in a shady patch of forest. Regarding their differences, each is skeptical of the other’s claim to be a sheep—but still willing to check out each other’s turf. After nearly suffering heart attacks—Wild mistakes a sheep dog for an attacking wolf in the meadow, and, later, rotund Woolly gets tangled in brush after puffing his way up the mountainside—both laugh it off, then return to their old haunts as night falls, agreeing to meet in the woods on the morrow. McNeill places the two stubby-limbed buddies in sunny natural settings, and gives them comically human expressions of bliss or panic; as they are never in real danger, young readers will be more amused than alarmed by their misadventures, and happy that they find common ground on which to continue their friendship. (Picture book. 6-8)