[.ca] The Salamander Room (ISBN 0679861874)

I love this book:
I don't normally read children's books, but this one is wonderful! The story and writing are very moving, the illustrations are beautiful. And the message!!!!! The message is wonderful, about dropping the walls that separate us from the natural world, inviting nature into our lives. I cannot recommend this book too highly.

good story - great pictures!:
This is a simple story of a child who finds, beneath the leaves, a bright & lively creature & brings him home where his mother asks him how he'll take care of his newfound friend. If a picture tells a thousand words then Steve Johnson's speak volumes. Vivid, compelling & so very magical & real, Brian's adventures & dreams fill the pages with the familiar & the whimsical. I loved the bed Brian made for his friend in his nightstand drawer & the moon & stars on his headboard. Unloading leaves with his dump truck & when the salamander peeks out of Brian's bedroom window, oh, you know you've seen that kind of energy, exhileration & anticipation! A wonderful book of heartwarming visions with a simple, important story to tell about the responsibility & fun of bringing home wild creatures.

A Salamanders Home:
In this amazing book for children a young boy named Brian is exploring in a forest and finds a little salamander and takes it home. His mother is worried and keeps asking him how he is going to take care of this extraordinary creature. Well his mother comes up with more and more questions, while Brian keeps coming up with more and more answers. As the story progresses Brian's bedroom begins to change, and the more questions he answers, the more his bedroom changes. Near the end you begin to see what his bedroom is changing into. At the end of the story his bedroom is filled with a multitude of animals and his room is now a forest but he and his salamander friend are happy and tired and they fall asleep. This interesting book was written by: Anne Mazer and illustrated by Steve Johnson.

I need to buy a hardcover edition ...:
... because I've worn out the paperback reading it to my kids. It is a favorite with my son (now 7). Wonderfully illustrated. Wonderfully imaginative. Get lost in "The Salamander Room" today.

A Little Boy's (or Girl's) Dream World!:
This story is a sort of little boy's fantasy- taking home a salamander, and making all the necessary accomodations to make it comfortable. He eventually imagines his room full of starry moss and boulders filled with water pools for drinks, buzzing with insects and swooping birds to gobble up the extras, towering with trees, and sprinkled with stars. What wonder of the imagination! My brother was fondly called "Alexander Salamander" when he was little, so it was only appropriate that he--and I--would love this book. We were also mini-naturalists and wild fanatsizers, and this was a perfect way to let our imaginations jump one last time before the book, and the night, ended sleepily and peacefully.