SONIA AND BARNIE AND THE NOISE IN THE NIGHT

When Sonia sees the pointy-nosed creature making a strange noise in the garden, she decides—with a delicious thrill—that it's a wolf. Not so, she later concludes, but a friendly fox, rather like the plastic prize in her cereal. Pank's disarming text is nicely in tune with children's imagination and concerns; her accompanying pen-and-watercolor illustrations have a pleasingly whimsical grasp of reality, with Sonia and her baby brother—and their lovely English garden—especially well drawn. A promising debut. (Picture book. 3-8)