Something Might Happen

Rating:
Summary: His imagination always sees disaster in any situation
Review: Helen Lester's Something Might Happen receives Lynn Munsinger's delightfully zany color drawings as it tells of Twitchly Fidget, who is afraid to go anywhere or do anything. His imagination always sees disaster in any situation, so he stays indoors and waits for adventure to come to him - which it does, with an unusual twist.

Rating:
Summary: Twitchly Fidget is afraid that something (bad) might happen
Review: Twitchly Fidget is a young lemur who worries about absolutely everything bad that might happen to him, even though nothing has so far. But it might. He could put his shoes on the wrong feet and walk cross-legged for the rest of his life. This and other thoughts keep Twichly from doing anything, which means he does not get to enjoy anything either, like the parade all the other kids are going to go watch. Fortunately, one day Twitchly Fidget's Aunt Bridget Fidget drops in for a vidget, um, a visit, and she shows her young nephew that his fears are unfounded.

"Something Might Happen" is told by Helen Lester and illustrated by Lynn Munsinger. This particular pair has collaborated on dozens of similar books, from "Tackylocks and the Three Bears" and "Score One for the Sloths" to "Hooway for Wodney Wat" and "It Wasn't My Fault." In these times when the nightly news can give young kids ample reason for being anxious, "Something Might Happen" teaches young readers that letting your imagination add to your anxities is not a good thing. Lester dedicates the book to her son Robin, "who chose to be there when something happened," and hopefully young readers will feel the same when they finish this story.

If you have a child who is anxious about what is happening in their world, then this book could well be a remedy of sorts. The story is structured so that Aunt Bridget disposes of all of Twitchly's fears one by one, providing a nice sense of symmetry. Munsinger's artwork does a nice job of turning the frightened little lemur into one who goes out into the world to see what might happen next.