ROSIE AND THE NIGHTMARES

In this amusing paean to overcoming monster-sized fears, Rosie wakes shaking from yet another nightmare. After devouring a recommended self-help book and practicing at home, she heads for the amusement park’s “Tunnel of Fear” with a plan. She gleefully disarms the tunnel’s not-too-scary denizens with rope, cunning and—worst of all—a kiss. Though the fleeing monsters seem to belie that tired parental admonition, “it’s just your imagination,” astute preschoolers will notice the largest creature’s metal rivets, once the manager arrives to shine a light on the rumpus. Waechter liberally employs black line to define and texturize flat expanses of color (warm and earthy in the town scenes, cool and reptilian in the tunnel). Rosie’s presence as a solitary, anthropomorphized rabbit in a town of humans works, somehow. Similarly, the seemingly random arrangement of illustration types (full bleed, spot, cropped and more) is redeemed by the constant presence of the small, determined heroine, whose outlook seems rosy indeed. (Picture book. 3-7)