cover image The Very First Lucy Goose Book

The Very First Lucy Goose Book

Steven Weathrill, Stephen Weatherill. Prentice Hall, $9.95 (31pp) ISBN 978-0-13-941410-7

Lucy Goose's heart is certainly in the right place when she allows a mother frog and her 2001 tadpoles to stay in her birdbath. But by Christmas, when the frog family still has no pond of their own, it's time for drastic measuresLucy writes Santa. He gives her tickets (one for each frog) to a Frog Reserve, where they'll all be safe. That's one of five stories; in another, Lucy has unexpected guests for dinner, and all her meal plans are upset by well-meaning friends. Lucy's tales begin as funny muddles, but she always lands on those webbed feet. Weatherill's comic-strip format will appeal to those readers just beyond picture book age, and there are hundreds of kid-pleasing details; the sight of thousands of frogs hopping toward their destiny is but one delight. Ages 612. (May)