Five Little Fiends - Hardcover

On a lovely plain far away sit five statues, each with a squat red fiend who lives inside. The fiends marvel at the world outside their stony encasements: the beautiful sky, the land, the sea, the sun, and the moon. So one day they decide to squirrel away their favorite pieces of the universe inside their statues. Sure, it is fun at first, but they soon realize that their prizes, once isolated, just aren't the same--the sun can't stay up without the sky, the sky is invisible without the land, the sea can't flow without the pull of the moon... In the end, they put their fiendy heads together and decide to put everything back. Sarah Dyer's simple story about appreciating the universe and its harmonious web was first published in England and awarded the Bronze Medal in the 2001 Smarties Book Prize. Youngsters will love the idea of these Maurice Sendak-style monsters living inside the rocks, and Dyer's gorgeous cross-section glimpses are perfectly enchanting. Her depictions of a fiend rolling up the sky like a piece of paper or catching the moon in a big butterfly net are wonderfully clever and sure to charm both children and adults alike. A future classic, perhaps? (Ages 2 to 5) --Karin Snelson