FAITH AND THE FOREST

A girl loses her way in the woods in this debut picture book.

All Faith, a white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed early elementary schooler, wants to do is play on her tablet. But her mom shoos her outside before breakfast, reminding her to stay in the yard. Instead, an owl draws Faith into the woods, where she encounters several other forest creatures. Before too long, Faith is lost, and even though she feels scared, she stops and thinks, trying to remember where she’s been. When the owl lands next to her, she realizes she can remember all the landmarks of the animals she saw to find her way home. Although using creatures may not be the best way to get out of the woods, Bushby’s lesson in remaining calm and retracing your steps gels with basic wilderness advice for those who are lost but close to civilization. Because the book follows Faith’s complete journey, the narrative offers young readers a chance to remember the pattern and trace their own way back to the girl’s home. On the trip home, each of the author’s cartoon illustrations gives readers a clue—they can see the previous animal’s silhouette in the background. Faith’s successful trek will encourage readers to dream of their own backyard escapades.

An effective introduction to sequence recognition using a kid’s forest adventure. (Picture book. 4-7)