The Picture: Story and Pictures

Lovely, meaningful pictures in light-filled colors illustrate Brighton's story, related effectively in short, declarative sentences. ""I am in bed. I am hot. I am ill,'' says a feverish child. She stares at the picture on one wall, a snowy country scene of long ago. A girl dressed in old-fashioned clothes comes out of the painting and takes the narrator back to medieval times. ``She opens a door. Her family are there.'' They treat the visitor royally until it's time for her to be escorted back home and to bed. The British author-artist makes the dream adventure so real that readers and tiny listeners will believe it and want to experience it again and again. (28)