Wee Sister Strange

PreS-Gr 2—This lyrical poem about a girl who roams the woods at night has a more unsettling premise than readers might think at first glance. "She doesn't have parents./No one knows her name./But the people in town/Call her Wee Sister Strange." Grant's Edgar Allan Poe-ish tale is balanced by Campbell's soft illustrations in watercolor and colored pencil, which depict a fey redheaded sprite with huge hazel eyes, pert coral lips, and a ratty yellow dress, who prances through the night searching delicately for a bedtime story. The settings shift from an autumnal forest with prowling wolves and barn owls to a deep bog filled with axolotls. Kids will be intrigued by this lightly creepy rhyme, which sounds like cautionary verse but ends sweetly. The verse rolls smoothly without forced rhymes or syllables and does well as a read-aloud.