Into the Bewilderness by Gus Gordon

There are some signals that a book is actually for kids. Sometimes they're obvious: the shelf it sits on in a store or library, a big sticker on the spine, quotes from "little Jimmy, age 10."

Sometimes, though, you find a book in a library app, and think it could be a fable or something else quirky like that. And then you realize it's one of those stories about two people who live together Ernie-and-Bert-style, and that snaps a lot of other vague or goofy things into perspective. "This is a book for ten-year-olds," you realize, "I might enjoy it but it's not for me."

I hit that point about halfway through Gus Gordon's Into the Bewilderness, which sent me to his bio at the back of the book. He is known for writing and illustrated books for "small people," as he puts it. I think Harper Alley, the publisher here, might also be at least in part an outfit aimed at small people, though the copyright page doesn't have the age guidance I usually look for as my dead giveaway.

Anyway, this is nice and pleasant and a bit cozy, largely because it's a book for younger readers. Keep that in mind, and it's quite enjoyable.

Luis and Pablo live together in a cabin out in the middle of nowhere. We know this from the beginning of the book: it starts with a map that includes their "Bewilderness" as well as other places including "The Really Pointy Mountains" and "Grumpy Toad Valley" and "Weird rock place."

Luis is a bear who wears a sweater and a tuque; Pablo is a mole who wears overalls and glasses. Luis is the Ernie-coded one: he carries a guitar, makes up songs, and has silly ideas. Pablo is Bert-coded: always reading books, more knowledgeable, deeply grumpy.

Luis yearns for culture: shows, arts, musicals. There are none such in the middle of nowhere. Pablo notes that his people never leave this area, since his great-great-great grandfather ran off and...he leaves this story vague for a long time.

But Luis wins two tickets to a musical in the Big City, and - after some mostly-friendly banter, Pablo eventually decides to go with him. They go wait at the bus stop, finally get a bus, and take the long, circuitous (we've seen the map) ride to the Big City.

It is, indeed, Big - very different in every way from what they're used to. In interesting ways, surprising ways, fascinating ways. They go to find the theater where the musical is playing, and things don't go like they or the reader expects.

Of course, the end of the story sees them back in their cabin in the Bewilderness; books for small people must always renormalize. And we get the inevitable pitch for friendship: books for small people sometimes are about family, but most of the time - especially with a set-up like this - they lean heavily into the "friends are the best darn thing in the world" framing.

Gordon has a nice cartoony style - his self-portrait looks a bit Quentin Blake-y - and he does the vaguely-smartass dialogue and narration on a kid-appropriate level. This is a renormalizing book about the importance of friendship for ten-year-olds, but it's quite entertaining on that level.