Patrick Benson

Like many of London's (The Owl Who Became the Moon) previous books, Let the Lynx Come In lends a distinctive poetry to natural themes; but here, as in his best books, his language approaches the resonant power of myth. In a cabin in the north woods, a father sleeps by the pot-bellied stove while his wide-awake son imagines what lies outside in the vast darkness. At the sound of scratching, the boy opens the door and beholds a lynx, which steps inside. While "firelight glows in its yellow show more eyes," the wildcat grows "till his whiskers touch the walls!" He commands the youngster to climb up for a ride. Continuing to grow, the Great Lynx takes the child past the tips of pine trees to "claw up and up the curtains" of the rippling northern lights, all the way to the moon. London's poetic prowess and ability to capture awe renew the familiar theme of riding into the wild night on an animal's back. show less

This is a lovely easy read for a lower elementary classroom or any kid who may feel smaller or younger than they'd like to be. The book is told from the perspective of a small Adelie penguin grappling with being smaller than the large emperor penguins. After befriending a whale, she learns that everything can be big or small when compared to something else. I could imagine myself using this to discuss bullying or even comparison words in a kindergarten lesson.

A fantasy tale of a boy and a wild lynx told in the first person view of the storyteller, the boy. The watercolor and line illustrations hold this tale together. A great book of exploration and imagination. Huge blocks that contained text takes away from the illustration. Words printed directly on the illustrations would be fine.

Little Pip is a three-year-old Adelie penguin in the Antarctic, who wonders why she has ended up a little penguin instead of a big one (as the three-year-old Emperor penguins are much bigger). As she takes a dive into the sea, she wonders why some fish are small and some are large. Then she bumps into a three-year-old Sperm whale and realizes that size is relative -- because the Emperor penguins are only big compared to whales which are huge.