Yeti and the Bird

Yeti looks ferocious, with his magnificently shaggy white fur and pinprick eyes, %E2%80%9Cso everyone left him alone.%E2%80%9D The local foxes and raccoons never suspect that %E2%80%9CYeti was lonely.%E2%80%9D The solitary sasquatch sits on a log and directs his ghostly gaze into a subalpine pool. He stops brooding when a rotund red bird, who has misread her migration map, crash-lands on his head and guffaws a silly %E2%80%9CSqwalka-sqwalka%E2%80%9D at his angry roar. Before long, the two are playing on a makeshift seesaw%E2%80%94Yeti calling out a happy %E2%80%9CGraaah!%E2%80%9D%E2%80%94and singing %E2%80%9Csweet, sad songs together, which soothed the forest to sleep.%E2%80%9D Shireen (Hey, Presto) sets a foreboding scene with silhouettes of midnight blue and evergreen against permafrost hues of lichen. Yeti%E2%80%99s coat suggests the coming winter, and the red-orange bird is the brightest presence on the pages. By the time the bird continues south, however, friendship melts the icy tension. Yeti%E2%80%99s fellow animals, who witnessed his kindness, feel emboldened to approach him. Although Shireen tells a customary tale of an odd couple, her appealing Yeti is well worth getting to know. Ages 4%E2%80%938. (Feb.)