The Island of the Skog by Steven Kellogg

A group of mice set sail in search of a peaceful island but are unsure what to do when they read in the atlas that the island they find is populated by one skog (no one knows what a skog is). Bring it a present or fire the cannons?

I might need to start a new tag called 'mythical creatures'. This is definitely one of Lena's favorite genres. I think she really likes to be surprised by a story. And she loves stories that are a little bit scary but have funny endings. We took this book to school to read after nap and she got very animated telling the other kids about the skog but she didn't spill the beans about the surprise ending! All the kids loved it. Parents will appreciate the Utopian premise of the story and the sarcastic comments that go along with it: "here we can all *feel* like kings, and that's the most important part of being king, as everyone knows."