Find Fergus

Will bespectacled brown bear Fergus ever get the hang of hiding? There he is, on the very first page, staring right at readers with a big goofy grin. “Fergus!” writes Boldt (Bad Dog), channeling the kind of mock indignation that the target audience relishes. “We already found you! That was too easy. Try hiding again.” Concealment at the page’s margin and with a passel of polar bears is a total bust, but Fergus never gives up—a subtle nudge to readers who find their own attempts at mastery frustrating. Finally something clicks in a “ONE. LAST. TIME” double gatefold, where the ever-exuberant Boldt pulls out all the stops: Fergus hides amid all the animals who have appeared with him on previous spreads—a plethora of elephants, bears, moose, squirrels, rabbits, as well as a fox and duck—and he’s all but invisible. Here is living, if silly, proof that by keeping one’s furry shoulder to the wheel, success can be achieved. The book concludes with now confident Fergus’s list of other items that readers can seek and find in the final gatefold, including “a squirrel carrying a rabbit who is carrying another rabbit.” Ages 3–7. [em]Agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary. (Nov.) [/em]