Australian-born King's eponymous heroine adores life on the rebound. "Sometimes she sleeps," he notes, "sometimes she eats, but... most of the time, she bounces." With her pie-faced grin, retro-hippie wardrobe and ringlets that look, fittingly, like springs, Emily indulges in high-altitude hijinks throughout the day, joined by real and imaginary friends (and occasionally the word "boing"). "She can bounce with her dinosaur,/ bounce with her cat,/ bounce with an elephant,/ or with Nana Pat." King fills in a light gray shadow behind Emily and her various upwardly mobile companions, creating an almost three-dimensional quality; they might almost be jumping off of the page. The obviousness of the laundry-list narrative starts to wear thin, and King's watercolor-and-ink characterization of Emily changes little from page to page. Yet she's such an exuberant, stylish presence that children will likely be willing to bounce along with her to the end, when she triumphantly leaps upon what every reader will recognize as the ne plus ultra of proxy trampolines: her parents' bed. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)
