Young ones who have mastered their nursery rhymes will get a hoot out of Jackson's (I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Pie) gentle humor and the old woman who lives in a shoe (who delivers the punch line). When she decides to seek a new home for her brood, the old woman visits a succession of familiar places. Firehammer's (The Flea's Sneeze) pleasant illustrations portray the wee family escaping along Humpty Dumpty's wall, fleeing from 24 blackbirds, being squeezed out of the suit of the Grand Duke of York and frightening Little Miss Muffett in place of the spider (after her entourage settles into a warm woolen coat, the narrative reads, "When Little Jack Horner stopped in for some pie,/ She decided to give a new haven a try"). The soft-edged acrylic paintings feature a pastel palette, a cast of multicultural, doll-like children with their family dog and cat and plenty of action. Youngsters will likely embrace the chance to identify these characters and their well-known rhymes. The old woman eventually settles her huge family back into their original shoe house, and says, "If the shoe fits, then wear it," thus providing a fitting conclusion. Ages 2-7. (Sept.)
