What about My Goldfish CL

Jamie doesn't want to move. Worried about leaving his friends, neighborhood and school, he preoccupies himself with concern for his pets. ``What if Freckles the dog won't leave home?'' he asks. ``What about my goldfish?'' After moving into the new house, Jamie continues to focus on dog and goldfish. ``Maybe they wouldn't be lonely if they had new friends,'' he thinks. Jamie comes up with a clever idea that enables him to make some new friends. Through simple, gentle narration and straightforward dialogue, this story perceptively conveys childhood anxieties about moving and provides a model for overcoming them as well. Plecas's compositions are calm and her palette soothing; her figures recall Roz Chast's in their wispiness. Readers confronting a situation like Jamie's will be comforted by Greenwood and Plecas's winsome creation. Ages 6-9. (Sept.)