The Night the Carousel Came to Life by Michael Gray (Author) and Parisa Kheirkhah (Illustrator)
This review first appeared on Reader Views . Read the Reader Views version here . A young boy named Beckham is at his favorite place: the zoo. He watches all of the animals being themselves, but he particularly relishes it when he gets to ride the zoo’s carousel. Unlike a typical carousel that just has colorful ponies to ride, the zoo’s carousel has all sorts of wild animals as possible mounts. Beckham loves everything about the carousel: the animals, the music, and the movement. This time, when he gets ready to leave the zoo, though, Beckham wonders how the carousel animals can look so real but not be in a zoo enclosure. As he gets ready for bed, he asks his parents about where the carousel animals sleep since they don’t have their own enclosures. His parents smile and tell him that they live in dreamland. And so, when Beckham dreams, he encounters each carousel animal in turn. But what will he learn from these encounters? How can animals show Beckham how to live as a human boy?...
