A Day with Alice and Sam: Ten Stories and a Picture Dictionary

Designed for children getting ready to read on their own, this copiously illustrated, paper-over-board volume nicely bridges the gap between picture and chapter books. Told in the enthusiastic voice of five-year-old Alice, 10 brief stories chronicle a day's activities. After breakfast (during which her younger brother Sam is too busy playing with a toy train to eat), the two children help their father plant a tree; Alice and her mother make cupcakes, which Sam, the cat and dog devour messily; Sam and Alice paint pictures and play a game of cards; the family attends a street fair together; Sam loses (and finds) his favorite stuffed toy; and--in a rather inventive story-within-a-story, Alice's father reads to her at bedtime. Though the ``picture dictionary''--several pages of labeled items that have appeared in the illustrations--adds little, the tales provide a comfortingly realistic account of a family's daily routine. Ably complementing the stories, Galvani's softly colored pictures are packed with detail, humor and action. Ages 3-6. (Apr.)