Elliot’s Noisy Night. (An Elliot Moose Story). Andrea Beck. Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press, 2002. 32 pp., cloth, $12.95. ISBN 1-55337-011-2. Preschool-grade 1 / Ages 4-6. Review by Ian Stewart. *** /4

exerpt:

Elliot Moose was worried.

Last night he'd heard noises in bed.

And though he'd managed not to think about them much all day, now that it was dark he couldn't think of anything else. As he hurried to the kitchen for a bedtime snack, Elliot imagined scary things.

Young children will easily relate to the problem of Elliot, the stuffed moose. Things go bump, thump, clang and swoosh in the night, and he doesn't know what they are. His little stuffed friends, Socks, Paisley, and Amy, try to calm his fears, but, as the dark hours grew nearer, he becomes ever more afraid. Wise Beaverton Beaver explains to Elliot that the strange night noises are only refrigerators and pipes making sounds we don't normally hear in the day. Elliot is finally able to go to sleep. However, he soon hears even stranger noises; what can they be? It turns out his friends, who, now frightened of the sounds, are coming to visit him. Elliot calms their fears, and, in the end, they all have a cozy sleepover in his bed in the noisy old house. This is a sweet little story that will lead children to tell stories of the sounds they have heard in the night, and one which will help them conquer their fears. Andrea Beck's charming illustrations carry the story perfectly and capture its mood flawlessly.

Recommended.

Ian Stewart is an early years teacher in Winnipeg School Division in Winnipeg, MB.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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