Waiting for Mom

As in their previous collaboration, When Daddy Comes Home, Tyler and Davis depict a real problem with genuine sympathy for their character. The hippo heroine of this story waits every afternoon for her mother to pick her up from school, but this afternoon Mom is inexplicably late. The little hippo gets more and more worried, but she never leaves the school. When at last the mother (who's been caught in a traffic jam) arrives, the reader is almost as relieved as the small hippo. Tyler understands the importance of daily routines to children; her book will provide parents with a springboard for discussion of action that their children should take in similar situations. Davis's illustrations are lively, from first forlornness to the last ray of ultimately realized hope. Ages 26. (May)