JUDGE THIS BOOK BY ITS COVER

Black, white and red are supposedly the first colors that babies can tell apart from each other. Perhaps this is why THE TERRIBLE HODAG and the ANIMAL CATCHERS, written by Caroline Arnold, and illustrated by John Sandford, is so eye-catching. The book is about a monster living in a forest, and some bad guys try to capture it. Luckily, the lumberjacks working in the forest help protect the Hodag from being caught. Each drawing is in pen-and-ink, and there are so many lines and shapes, you can imagine how long it took Mr. Sandford to do each page. But what's really neat is the story has words in red ink that pop off the page as much as the illustrations do. It's always nice when the pictures are as good as the story, just like this book. Ages 7 and up.