Little Bird and the Moon Sandwich

""If it fell, could I touch it?"" Little Bird asks her friend Alfonse while gazing at the moon. This delightful follow-up to Berkowitz's Alfonse, Where Are You? (penned as Linda Wikler) portrays a tender friendship as it explores the mystery of the moon. Alfonse tells Little Bird, ""The moon can't fall because it is glued onto the sky. Also the moon is made of Swiss cheese!"" When Little Bird sees the moon's reflection in the water, she jumps in after it, setting off a flurry of activity as several big white geese join in. They bring up a rock, a tennis ball and, finally, a Swiss cheese sandwich, of which Little Bird gets only a small piece. But in a most engaging spread, featuring eight vignettes of Little Bird, she celebrates her bit of ""moon sandwich,"" carrying the scrap of Swiss around with her, peering through a hole in it, nibbling on it, dancing with it and at last, sleeping on it. Berkowitz's moonlit watercolor paintings convey, variously, stillness and commotion; her fluent use of brushstrokes highlights the subtle gradations of water and sky. The tale's underlying appeal lies in Berkowitz's clear understanding of the way young children think and use their imaginations to puzzle out why things are the way they are. Ages 1-4. (May)