The Best Present

Rosie, eight, is hoping to visit her grandmother in the hospital, but she falls two years short of the visitor age requirement. With the help of friend Kate, she tries to dress herself to look older, but when she is questioned by the hospital staff, Rosie is too afraid to break the rules. Instead, she anonymously sends flowers up to her grandmother's room with a stranger. When her grandmother comes home, she shows that she has Rosie's flowers pressed into a book, a gift she calls her ``best present.'' Keller's sensitive approach to tough subjects is once again in evidence; she conveys with genuine sentiment a child's frustrations at not being allowed to carry out her good intentions. This is a sweet and generous book. Ages 5-up. (Apr.)