The Missing Pairs

Hand-drawn “Lost” signs are going up all over a forest at this picture book’s start, and it seems that every animal is missing something. For Fox, Hare, and Badger, it’s one half of a pair of some essential cold weather gear—respectively, a blue-striped sock, a yellow polka-dotted mitten, and a turquoise boot. After some misguided help from Bear (who thinks they want “pears”), the group stumbles on a floppy-eared dachshund who’s been stashing the stuff in front of its doghouse—and if readers begin again at the book’s opening pages, they’ll see the serial snatching unfold. In a closing wordless scene, the group, and the dog, have landed back in the forest with the missing items in tow—most of them not belonging to pairs. It’s not the tightest story arc, but Ivinson’s (Fox and the Box) acrylic artwork, with its saturated colors and energetic brushwork, offers some lovely compensation. The urgency of the animals’ quest is almost palpable, and the art’s autumnal cast is winning: the leaves float slowly off the trees, the cast wears bright woolly scarves, and from the looks of the icy blue sky and waving grasses, the forecast is windy with a nip in the air. It practically demands a reading with a side of hot chocolate. Ages 4–8. [em](Aug.) [/em]