Owly & Wormy: Bright Lights and Starry Nights!

Owly & Wormy: Bright Lights and Starry Nights! cover

A new Owly book never disappoints, and the oversized hardcover children’s book format just provides more room to explore Andy Runton’s lovely visions of the animal friends. In this followup to last year’s Friends All Aflutter!, Runton is playing with art in shades of purple and black, as Owly and Wormy use their new telescope.

You can’t see the stars well from most homes, especially if your house is a tree covered in leaves, so the two go camping, after a good night’s sleep, of course. There are a few snags, such as rain and scary noises in the dark, but all are resolved amiably, with the addition of a few new friends.

Owly & Wormy: Bright Lights and Starry Nights! cover

As always, the stories are wordless, which makes them approachable to not-quite-readers. Owly and Wormy communicate in pictorial balloons, some quite detailed. We know it’s night, for instance, because we get a little balloon of the sun tucked into bed making Z z zs. When Owly gets an idea, there’s a light bulb, of course — but it’s one of the curly-tube fluorescents that kids nowadays see in fixtures.

I find this series so refreshing because it focuses on the basics of life, simply told and warmly communicated — good friends, interacting with the natural world, approaching every problem with humor and positive intentions. Readers even learn that you may have to face up to your fears in order to get a better reward in the end.



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