Wood Could

A picture book that reads like a graphic novel, this imaginative tale is about a nameless, BIPOC girl playing in a forest with her purple, stuffed bunny named Prince Fluffybutt. The little girl is desperately trying to get a grumpy, anthropomorphized piece of wood to play make-believe with her, but wood just keeps rolling away from her because he wants to be left alone to take a nap.

Wood Could begins with a piece of wood sleeping in a forest next to a sign that reads “Do not disturb! This means you!” when a little girl disrupts the napping log of wood with a fun make-believe scenario. In a thought bubble, readers see that the little girl imagines herself as a princess and the piece of wood is a unicorn that she and Prince Fluffybutt can ride through the forest. As the story progresses, the little girl’s make-believe scenarios become impressively more elaborate, but, unfortunately for her, the piece of wood is not interested in playing. Instead, the piece of wood rolls away from the little girl with funny tree-themed puns for why he does not want to participate, puns like “why go out on a limb for a stranger?” With two subsequent fun make-believe scenarios involving quicksand and pirates, the piece of wood still chooses to roll away.

In the final scenario the little girl creates an elaborate scene in which a dragon has kidnapped Prince Fluffybutt and dropped him in her nest up in a tree outside a castle. The dragon is coming back to eat Prince Fluffybutt, and the little girl calls out to the piece of wood to help her rescue Prince Fluffybutt by becoming a ladder. Wood replies that “she was out of her tree is she thought wood would!” and he rolls away. On the next page, after settling down to rest, wood hears the little girl crying because she and Prince Fluffybutt are actually stuck up in the tree. Wood decides he could and would help her down which gave him a warm feeling, one almost as good as taking a nap. The last page shows the little girl and Prince Fluffybutt and the piece of wood napping happily together in the forest with the sign from the first page slightly altered by the girl to read “Do not disturb! Unicorn sleeping.”

This story would be best suited to older children, 5 to 8 years-olds as the storyline is quite complex, the illustrations are very detailed if not a little crowded, and the puns are funny but advanced. The pictures are packed with details for children to explore, and the text of the story gives it a graphic novel feel with lots of word and thought bubbles. The make-believe scenarios’ becoming more complex make for fun storytelling. Wood Could could be a useful introduction for classroom activities in creative writing or discussions about graphic novels.