Polly's Picnic - Hardcover

Kindergarten-Grade 1-Polly wants only to enjoy a pleasant picnic by the river, but greedy animals have other ideas. One by one, they find each piece of food so delightful that they grab not just a bite, but everything, including the basket. Finally, the creatures examine their rude behavior and find a unique solution to replace Polly's picnic and reward her sharing-each one contributes to the preparation of a small feast. "`There's Polly's house,' the two cats cried./They found the door and burst inside./Then they measured,/mixed and baked/biscuits, sandwiches,/sausages, cakes." Williams's art reveals Polly through a haze of soft pastels, and soothing impressionistic backgrounds on full-page art neatly coincide with dialogue and narration for the fluid development of the child's tale. The single jarring note in this lovely book is the inexplicable introduction of an adult (her mother?) in the pictures without a textual reference. Despite that, the art in this book is a shared treasure for young and old.
Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX
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