It's bedtime and Ricky can't settle down to sleep because he hears the wind outside, "Whoosh-Whoosh-Ka-whoosh!" Ricky is sure that the wind is lonely. He says, "Mr. Wind is crying out...please come play with me." When he gets out of bed to peek outside he sees his toy car go flying across the yard. His dog, who has been lying in the doghouse with his head on his paws, looks up to see what is happening. A lovely spread shows several small panels: the first has the text "Then," the next reads, "all the toys," the third "jumped," and then a large panel proclaims "into the wind!" Breaking the text of the sentence up among the panels builds the sense of tension as a toy boat, a robot, a monkey with cymbals, and some tin soldiers all go flying out the window. Ricky calls out, "Wait" just before he is also swept into the night.
Perspective in the illustrations shifts from looking out at the night sky from the cozy bedroom to looking down into the yard as Ricky and all the toys rise up toward the sky. The dog watches them from around the corner of the doghouse. Then the viewpoint shifts again and readers see everything flying up toward a shining full moon as the wind goes, "Swish Swoosh Wish-Whoosh." Once everything flies across town and lands in the woods Ricky suggests they play hide-and-seek. He counts as all the toys hide. The robot crouches behind a bush and holds leaves over his head for camouflage. The tin soldiers help each other up into the branches of a nearby tree. Young readers will try to find the hiding spot of each one when Ricky declares, "Ten! Now come find us!"
The story returns to the house as Ricky huddles under his blanket and thinks that the wind laughs at him, "Swish-hee-hee." Mom comes in to check on him and he is on the floor under the blanket with his toys spread all around him. She helps him look for where the wind might be hiding to take its turn in the game. Behind the books on the shelf? Under the bed? When they open the curtain to look for it outside, they notice that the wind has calmed down. Mom suggests, "I'm sure he got tired and went home to rest...Now it's our turn to sleep." Was it all a game of make-believe? Then how did that leaf get caught in Ricky's hair?
This is truly one of those picture books where the text and illustrations work perfectly together. It begins and ends within the warm, quietly lighted bedroom with mom, but the pages in between capture the motion of everything caught up in the wind on a dark, wild night. The use of onomatopoeia to give the wind a voice and even laughter is also a nice touch.
This book is a fun bedtime story for little ones who want one last game before bed and can sympathize with Ricky's desire to play. But it can also be used to help a youngster deal with anxiety about a blustery bit of weather.
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