Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Simon's Dream (The Fog Mound)
Illustrator: Jon Buller
Fiction Series
For ages 8 to 12
Simon and Schuster, 2009 ISBN: 978-0689876899
Thelonius and his friends are worried that their enemies might threaten Fog Mound, the home that they all love. Perhaps if they better understand what happened in the past, they will be able to understand how to protect their future. They believe that the answers to their questions can be found at the Mattekeunk Institute, and now, after many adventures they have arrived at their destination.
At the Institute, the animals find a time machine, and when they use it they are transported to an unfamiliar place in the past. A curious side effect of the journey is that Bill, the miniature human, regains his ability to speak well. In fact he begins to talk non-stop. The animals finally learn what happened to the humans, and why some animals acquired the ability to talk. What they don't know is if this information will help them save Fog Mound.
In this third and final Fog Mound tale, the author and illustrator have once again created chapters that seamlessly alternate between text and a graphic novel style format. Readers will be interested to find out what happened to the humans in Thelonius' world. The clever ending to the trilogy wraps up the quirky story in this series very nicely.
