The Sleepy Dormouse

In this leisurely paced story, a hibernating dormouse resists the springtime reveille. Scraggly Sam, the local weasel, abducts the somnolent creature and stashes him under an inverted flower pot, where Sam fattens him up Hansel-and-Gretel-style by slipping sunflower seeds and hazelnuts through the pot's drain hole. At first the dormouse is delighted (``This is the life!'') and ignores the warnings of the nearby harvest mice. But when the weasel pokes his captive to test for plumpness, the prisoner wakes up to reality. Acting on a plan devised by the harvest mice, he plants the sunflower seeds instead of eating them, and waters them with his daily ration. Soon the fast-growing stalks have lifted the pot off the ground, and the dormouse squeaks free (with a few tugs from his friends). Readers will recognize familiar flora and fauna in Rowe's superbly lit watercolors; the weasel, jauntily hatted in a floppy leaf pinned with a twig, is especially amusing. Ages 3-8. (May)