In another nearly wordless romp in the great outdoors, award-winning author and illustrator Lita Judge (“Pennies for Elephants”) conjures the story of Red Sled (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 40 pp.). A snowsuit-swaddled young boy must go inside for the evening and leave his red sled leaning against the house. Barely has the dark descended before a bear, a bunny rabbit, a moose, and several raccoons, muskrats, and other forest creatures leap on the tiny sled and begin wild sweeps through the snow. There is no language – just a marvelous progression of “scrunch,” “ssssffft,” “whoa,” and “eeeee” as the critters whisk through the night on the sled. When the little boy awakes in the morning, there is just a scattering of telltale tracks to hint at what his sled might have experienced.
