Willy and May (Picture Puffins) - Softcover

Best known for her Skippyjon Jones series, Judy Schachner has illustrated many of her own stories, including the much-loved Grannyman and its companion book, Bits & Pieces. A #1 New York Times Bestseller, Judy is also known for her spirited reading of the Skippyjon stories, for which she won the first E. B. White Read Aloud Award. She lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

Ages 4^-8. A little girl tells of her beloved, eccentric great-aunt May, whom she visits each year during the summer and at Christmas. Together with May's pet bird, Willy, they bake pies (Willy dances on the soft dough), swim (Willy floats on May's hat), sing after supper (Willy spins on the Victrola record), and decorate the Christmas tree (Willy contributes dust bunnies and lost bobby pins). When apart, they write affectionate letters. One summer, the girl's mother falls ill, and the girl cannot visit May. The following Christmas, May promises to come, but a bad snowstorm blocks the roads and stops the trains. The child's distress and May's solution will make perfect sense to any child who has missed a loved one at Christmas. The lively antics of Willy and May give this picture book an aura of happiness that makes the sadness more poignant when it comes. Like Steven Kellogg's Best Friends (1986), this picture book concerns not only the joy, but also the pain that children feel and the way that it engulfs them. Full of lively details, the line-and-watercolor illustrations reflect the humor and the beguiling quality of the story itself. Carolyn Phelan