The Terrakeet

K-Gr 2–The Finlock family leads a rather idyllic life on a peaceful beach with only one terror to haunt them: the ferocious Terrakeet. From what they have heard this beast will gobble them up, and that threat motivates them to stay far away from where he is said to live. One day a young member of the family roams further than usual and eventually comes upon the Terrakeet just as a swarm of bees scares the creature, a large one-winged bird, to tears. They share a meal: “The beast, he really isn’t scary. It’s just the legends that make us wary.” Watercolor and ink illustrations capture both the idyllic scene and the fearsome beast in both imagination and reality, which turns out to be a tall green bird with a large round bottom and a propensity for tearing up in a charming way. The message of being afraid of those we do not know bears repeating, and this delivers the message with a bit of spine-tingling fear at the story’s beginning, followed by a welcome denouement.