Sadie Braves the Wilderness

PreS-Gr 2—Young Sadie somewhat uneasily describes her family's trip to Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Superior National Forest and their four-day adventure there. After what she declares to be "a hundred hours" of driving past Lake Superior, then a hundred more continuing "deeper and deeper into the woods," Sadie proclaims that her younger brother, Benjamin, is "very scared of the wilderness." They all swim under a roaring waterfall, hike "a dark and twisting forest trail," paddle their canoe on a lake past "a flying dinosaur" (a great blue heron), and are "trapped in [their] tent by a huge storm." Through it all, Sadie encourages Benjamin by warning invisible bears to stay away and holding his hand and expressing her own fears. Large, realistic two-page watercolor scenes show trees, huge rocks, a cascading waterfall, and some indigenous birds and animals (moose, bullfrog, pileated woodpecker). Scattered throughout the pages are some small "photos" taken during the trip.