cover image Where Is Owl’s Scarf?

Where Is Owl’s Scarf?

Brandy Cooke, illus. by Valentina Belloni. Little Bee, $6.99 (16p) ISBN 978-1-4998-0176-7

Ready for bed but missing his scarf, Owl looks for his lost item in this lift-the-flap board book. Readers who skip past a few initial questions of logic (Aren’t owls mostly nocturnal? Should Owl really have a scarf near that lit candle in his tree hollow home?) can still enjoy the ensuing guessing game as they lift flaps shaped like hay bales and piles of pumpkins, uncovering various animals, but not the scarf. Belloni uses bright colors and textures of grass, leaf, crepe paper, and paisley to create a friendly nighttime farm landscape, but the head-scratching ending (Turkey, a previously unseen character, is wearing the scarf for some reason) falls flat. Ages 3–6. (July)