FLASHLIGHT by Lizi Boyd. Chronicle Books: San Francisco, CA, 2014. 32p. ISBN 9781452 118949 hc. $16.99    PreS-Grade 2    E PIC

This wordless book can lead to long conversations about the plant and animal life to be found in your local park or at the edge of a nearby wood.  Our young explorer uses the beam of his flashlight to spot bats, mice, skunks, an owl, a beaver, a porcupine, a fox, and some fish before tripping over a stone which sends his light flying.  As he approaches to recover the light, some of the animals hiding in the black and white background turn the tables and put him in the spotlight.  The light leads him back to his outdoor tent where he settles in for the night.  Boyd uses simple grey outlines on a black background to look like chalkboard drawings, highlighted by color in the white flashlight beam.   Readers will have fun identifying all twenty animals that seem to move around the pages in the darkness.
Lynette Suckow, Superiorland Preview Center, Marquette, MI