A Friend for All Seasons

This sappy story about the changing of the seasons is both weakly written and mawkish. Neither Hubery's contrived dialogue nor Matsuoka's stilted illustrations manage to leaven the essentially wooden story about an animal child who discovers autumn. When Robbie Raccoon and his friend Chip the chipmunk see that Father Oak's leaves are falling, Robbie is alarmed. ""Father Oak must be sad. Let's give him a hug!"" he says, and he calls to Blackbird to help them. ""Father Oak is crying,"" he says, ""so let's hug our hugest hug and sing our happiest song!"" Robbie's mother consoles the youngsters by saying, ""Don't worry, little ones. He isn't crying,"" and explains that seasons change. Matsuoka's illustrations portray Robbie unlike any raccoon found in the wild- with a cream-colored head, a dark brown body and striped tail. Unfortunately, the wing-shaped beige circles under Robbie's pinpoint eyes allow little room for varying expressions. So pronounced is the odd coloring that it is often difficult for the reader to see what the characters are doing, as if the various parts of the animals' bodies were puzzle pieces that didn't quite fit together. Young readers may have trouble understanding the visual depiction of the text, and the plethora of butterflies, hearts, and flowers dotting the pages, and the portrayal of the tree in winter as a lump of brown stuck with six sticks do little to resuscitate it. For a fresher treatment of the same theme, see David Ezra Stein's Leaves. Ages 4-8.