The Adventures of Simple Simon

Conover embellishes the story of Simple Simon (who met a pieman going to the fair) with a festival of distractions. It's almost impossible to follow the rhyming story from beginning to end, as a caravan of animalsstorybook charactersdescends on the fair by foot, camel and ship. Because many small subplots are hatched in the illustrations, readers can spend much time flipping back and forth to see what's happening to whom. The artist uses a wide range of rich autumnal and wintry hues; folkloric details infuse the pictures with charm. Some of the things to look for include Mother Goose characters peppering pages and the endpapers, a house made of pies, a tiny Miss Muffet in cornrow braids, a snail in four hats and a backpack, a curious cabbage leaning out of the vegetable cart to follow a wayward turnip, and hundreds of other touches in this celebration of not one story, but many. Ages 3-up. (October)