cover image Come Out to Play

Come Out to Play

Jeanette Winter. Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, $12.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-394-87742-6

""Girls and boys, come out to play,/ the moon is shining bright as day . . . '' In Come Out to Play, Winter has taken a centuries-old nursery rhyme and set it in a modern Chicago neighborhood. A boy skips through the streets of his community, urging his playmates to, ``Leave your supper and leave your sleep,/ come join your playmates in the street.'' While a whimsical elf looks on, the friends go to the local park, where they sail to an island in the middle of the lake. There they feast on an enormous pudding. Although the setting is contemporary, the rhymes retains their timelessness. Winter's lush, inviting pictures radiate magic and mystery. (2-6)