Forget-Me-Not

Despite the axiom about elephants never forgetting, Monty is a young elephant who needs some help when it comes toremembering things. When Monty finds a blue bucket, he misidentifies it as a forget-me-not (his mother had told him that the flowers help elephants “remember to stay with the herd”) and finds himself separated from his fellow pachyderms. Carrying the bucket—a gift for his mother—with his trunk, Monty encounters members of several other species, who warn him that he won't fare well if he's alone when the rain arrives, prompting him to try to remember where he belongs. Monty's expected reunion has a child-pleasing twist: when the rain begins, he takes shelter beneath “trees” that are actually his mother's sturdy legs. Though they often border on cutesy, Broad's mixed-media illustrations do include some playful images—flamingos hold striped parasols, cartoonlike insects cavort throughout and Monty's mother wears the bucket (“It's the prettiest forget-me-not I've ever seen”) on her head as the herd munches on flowers that have bloomed in the rain. An amiable if not especially memorable story. Ages 4–7. (June)