You’ve probably made many lists of what you planned to do on a given day or what you did accomplish at the end of the day, but have you ever made a list of what didn’t happen that day? The Camel Who Took a Walk is a story about what didn’t happen when the beautiful camel went for a walk at dawn in the forest.

I just love this story. It’s so simple and yet clever, and it makes me chuckle. (I’ve been needing to laugh.) The language is rich and yet also simple, even though the author was not a native English speaker. Some examples:

• “All the while, the beautiful camel walked gracefully down the road turning her pretty head this way and that, while the sky grew brighter and brighter.”
• “Her nose smelled the early morning sweetness, and her eyes took in all the blue and pink colors of the sky.”
• “Then the little bird burst into a peal of laughter that pierced the forest.”

Although Tworkov was an artist himself, someone had the good sense to ask illustrator Roger Duvoisin to illustrate the story. The mostly black and white pictures, with a hint of dawn color on some of the pages, complement the story perfectly and add to the suspense. Will the tiger pounce on the camel? Will the money drop the cocoanut? What will the squirrel and the bird do? Will someone warn the camel of her impending doom?

Jus the right amount of suspense for a preschool audience and a great ending. I read this book many times aloud to school children and to my own, and they were captivated every time.