Bo the Brave

When Bo wants to accompany her older brothers on a monster hunt, they sneer: “You’re far too little.” But thick-skinned Bo remains undeterred. “I’m smart and brave and strong!” she thinks before setting out on her own quest. It’s not long before she encounters a griffin and then a three-eyed kraken (“Get ready to be got!”), but though both seem like monsters, their acts of kindness persuade her otherwise. At last, a cave-dwelling dragon, introduced with a page-filling roar, looks, smells, and sounds like the monster Bo has been seeking, but its cry is one of grief: the dragon’s baby has been stolen. With a loud cry of her own, Bo leads her new friends on a rescue mission that brings the story full circle. Working in gouache, Woollvin (Little Red) relies on a palette of pink, teal, gray, and orange to create a setting both modern and medieval. Bo, with her face-filling eyes, resembles Woollvin’s other fearless female protagonists; together, they seem to be rewriting the rules one fairy tale at a time. Ages 5–9. [em]Agent: Paul Moreton, Bell Lomax Moreton Literary. (Apr.) [/em]