cover image Kiss Your Sister, Rose Marie!

Kiss Your Sister, Rose Marie!

Nancy White Carlstrom. MacMillan Publishing Company, $13.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-02-717271-3

The issue of sibling rivalry is addressed in this compassionate peek into a day in the life of Rose Marie. The bunny is understandably disturbed at the sight of her mother cuddling and fussing over her new sister, Baby Boo. Mama admonishes, ``Be quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet,'' but Rose Marie prefers being ``loud loud loud!'' Mama saves the day by unearthing the family album and showing Rose Marie ``pictures of before''--when Rose Marie was the baby. In this undistinguished collaboration, text and art rarely mesh, and the repeated title phrase serves little point. Also, frequent quotation marks may cause difficulty in identifying which character is speaking. Nevertheless, the use of animals comfortably distances readers from a sticky situation, and the beguiling rabbit family is sweetly amusing. Ages 2-6. (Mar.)