Wed Wabbit

Ten-year-old Fidge, still adjusting to her father’s death two years earlier, is usually patient with her four-year-old sister, Minnie. But after a frustrating shopping trip, Fidge kicks Wed Wabbit, one of Minnie’s beloved stuffed toys, and Minnie gets hit by a car when she runs after it. While their mother stays with Minnie at the hospital, Fidge spends the night with her difficult cousin, Graham, whose parents take helicoptering to new levels. Amid an enormous thunderstorm, the two cousins are somehow transported to the land of the Wimbley Woos, colorful cylindrical creatures from Minnie’s favorite stories. There, they attempt to save them from a dictator—none other than Wed Wabbit himself. Evans (Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms) smartly counterbalances Fidge’s guilt over her role in her sister’s injury with the impossibly cheerful realm of Wimbley land (the Wimbley Woos speak in rhyme, testing both kids’ patience) and the improbable menace of Wed Wabbit who, like Minnie, can’t pronounce his Rs (“Those who bweak my wules will face my wage!!!”). This well-crafted journey of self-realization amuses at every turn. Ages 8–12. [em](Feb.) [/em]