posted on 26 Feb 2024

Tiny Owl’s Scary Day by Petr Horáček

There’s always a warm welcome here at the Letterpress Project for the work of the author/illustrator, Petr Horáček. We’ve been delighted to review his work before – here and here – and you’ll find an exclusive interview with him here.

Tiny Owl’s Scary Day is a big, bold, colourful picture book aimed at younger readers and would work well as a book to be read aloud in a nursery or classroom setting and would make a lovely bedtime story to be shared between parent and child.

Tiny Owl is learning the ways of the world and trying to understand where owls fit into the life of the woods and countryside. Most owls are, of course, largely nocturnal creatures and when Tiny Owl’s mommy tells her ‘Time for owls to go to sleep’ she’s a bit disgruntled because the daylight is just dawning.

Despite the warnings of her mommy – ‘Days can be scary for a small owl’ – she sneaks out of her safe tree nest to go exploring.

“Flying in the sunshine was exciting. It didn’t feel scary at all.”

But all that sense of well-being begins to evaporate as the world around her suddenly seems to harbour all manner of threats and dangers. 

She tries hard to keep up her excitement and optimism and finds the river a haven:

“Nothing scary here”

Well, not until she hears something sneaking up on her as she sits on the bankside. Even the company of other birds doesn’t really offer the safety she craves and finally she has to admit that her mommy was right – the safe place for owls in the daytime is back in the safety of home.

“But when she got home, no one was there.

And what was that noise?

SOMETHING was coming!”

You’ll have to buy the book for yourself to find out what’s coming into to Tiny Owl’s home because I’m not giving that away.

Available now from Walker Books, you’ll be able to get a copy from your local independent bookshop. They will, of course, be able to order it for you if they don’t have copies on the shelf.

 

Terry Potter

February 2024