Awesome!

PreS-Gr 1–Being best friends with an awesome forest hero isn’t easy, as Woody the beaver learns when his best friend Marvin the moose saves a squirrel from danger. Before Woody knows it, Marvin has gone from a local hero to a forest celebrity. A statue of Marvin has even been erected in the forest. Woody, however, has been left alone because Marvin is so busy, and he is seriously jealous and lonely. In order to garner some attention of his own, Woody starts acting out. He destroys the work of others (kicking over a carefully created pile of nuts) or tosses items onto the forest friends. For his final prank, Woody steals the statue of Marvin, intending to later “find” it to great adulation, but the statue breaks loose from Woody and careens toward a rabbit family. Luckily, Marvin and Woody are able to work together to save all the bunnies from harm, and Woody re-carves the statue to recognize both of the awesome friends. Young children will enjoy Woody’s silly, misguided, and loyal actions. The illustrations are amusing as well as a bit slapstick—a moose standing on two legs with a red cape and red eye mask would make just about anybody smile—and capture the ups and downs of the two friends.