Getting Used to Harry

From the high-spirited first spread (depicting the wedding of narrator Cynthia's mother, Inky, and Harry ""the shoe store man""), it's evident that this engaging book will take no getting used to at all. But Harry is an other issue. Dancing with Harry and Inky during the wedding celebration, Cynthia is ready to agree when the affable fellow gleefully declares, ""Isn't love the berries!"" But after he and Inky ""toodle-ooed off to the mountains"" on their honeymoon, Cynthia decides, ""Love is the pits."" And when they return, Cynthia finds Harry's omnipresence overwhelming: ""Harry is coming out of our ears,"" she confides to her grandmother. As expected, the magnanimous Harry and Cynthia eventually bond (during a walk outdoors one night when she can't sleep), bringing Best's (Taxi! Taxi!) funny, heartwarming tale to a reassuring close. Palmisciano (illustrator of the Jenny Archer books) contributes ebullient, motion-filled art that, like the text, keenly and wittily targets kids' emotions. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)