On Granddaddy's Farm

In this rambling, autobiographical picture book (similar in format to Judith HendershottI added 's. necessary? /dr nope and Allen's In Coal Country ), Allen pays tribute to the summers he spent with his cousins in the 1930s at his grandparents' farm in the hills of Tennessee. Like a father telling his children about the ``olden days,'' the quiet text is without plot: ``Our little granny put in a full day baking and cooking . . . and she also made sure that we cousins were well fed and well behaved and got our chores done.'' The children wash in the swimming hole, eat homemade biscuits and ham, jump in haystacks and greet their grandfather when he comes home from his railroad job. Like old photographs, Allen's picturesque sketches on beige paper seem slightly faded, as if they had been lovingly preserved in an old trunk. But the nostalgic text lacks Hendershott's grace of language. All ages. (Oct.)