Japanese Mistress — Pamela Allen

K-Gr 2 This very slight story has a baby's wish come true. Tired of lying powerless in her crib, the frustrated baby chooses one of those magic nights when the moon is out and the tide is full to make her escape. Her toy lion becomes enormous and fierce, to carry her out of her parents' castle, over the fields, into the forest, past the church, into the boat, and so on in a circular chase, with the frantic castle-dwellers in pursuit. When they approach too closely, the lion disperses them with a roar. He and the baby are in controluntil the morning, when the great lion disappears, and the stuffed toy is back in baby's crib. Allen's cartoon-like watercolors with pen and ink are amusing but inconsequential. Overall, this book is unmemorable: not to be compared with stronger wish-fulfillment drama such as Where the Wild Things Are.Joan McGrath, Education Centre Library, Toronto, Ontario, Canada