A Mystery in the Forest by Susanna Isern illustrated by Daniel Montero Galán translated by Jon Brokenbrow

Deer follows his daily routine. He crosses the river and goes to an isolated part of the forest to collect seasonal produce - oranges, pears and apples in Winter; strawberries, cherries and apricots in Spring; blueberries, raspberries, plums and figs in Summer; and grapes, chestnuts, walnuts and hazelnuts in Autumn. Deer loves to cook and his neighbours enjoy the delicious smells wafting from his kitchen. 

When his cooking is complete, Deer shares his treats at a huge outdoor table with all of his forest friends.

"They share a snack, laugh, and chat until the sun sets, and the first crickets begin to chirp."

At this point you could stop reading this story and ask the question what will happen now? How will Susanna Isern make her story interesting? Can you think of a complication?

Someone has been watching Deer. When he reaches the forest on an Autumn morning he finds a scene of destruction and back at home it is clear he has been robbed - his secret recipe book is missing. Who is the thief? Why has this happened? And most importantly how should or will Deer react when he finds the culprit?

This lovely book about forgiveness shows that friendship can form even in the most unlikely situations. Kirkus star review

Susanna Isern is a writer, psychologist and mother of three. She is the author of over 60 children's books, which are available all over the world and have been translated into over a dozen languages. Susanna lives in Santander, Spain. Susanna Isern is a psychologist BUT even though this book has a "message" or moral it is done with such a light touch there is no sense that she was writing with an agenda or that she wanted to teach her young readers "a lesson". Take a look at this post about another of Susanna's books - The big book of Superpowers. You can see art by Spanish illustrator Daniel Montero Galan here. 

I would use Shelter by Celine Claire illustrated by Qin Leng as a companion read with A Mystery in the Forest.

A Mystery in the Forest (Spanish title Un misterio en el bosque) is the second book by Susanna Isern and Daniel Montero Galán in the series Whispers in the Forest. I am very keen to read the first:

Here are some other books by Susanna which I have added to my own "to read" list:

Little Bird Lost by Patricia Hegarty illustrated by Sebastiaan Van Doninck

It is time for Little Bird to fly away with his flock but he has badly damaged his wing in a flying accident. Luckily Little Bird meets Deer and Deer kindly offers to carry Little Bird. They set off ask advice from the animals in the forest. Bear has told them the flock will be heading towards the sun to find somewhere warm.

Deer and Little Bird walk through the days of Summer, Autumn, Winter and finally in Spring Little Bird is reunited with his flock and in a beautiful moment Deer finds a special friend too. Along the way the pair of new friends play games, share stories and sing songs.

This is a perfect little easy chapter book for newly independent readers.It has a predictable structure (following the seasons), an strong emotional arc and best of all some sweet touches of humour. I especially laughed at the character of Porcupine.  It is so wonderful to see the care the publisher, Little Tiger, have taken with this book. The illustrations are vibrant and at times quite powerful (take a look a the attack of the wolf), the cover is appealing, the end papers are fun images of Little Bird and his crazy antics and most of all I appreciate the beautiful quality of the paper used in Little Bird Lost and other books in this series. There are eleven titles so far. Here are some I have on my "to read" list:

Take a look at the art of Dutch illustrator Sebastiaan Van Doninck.  I have talked about another book by Patricia Hegarty in a previous post - Bee. She is the author of several books illustrated by the brilliant illustrator Britta Teckentrup.