AMY ELIZABETH EXPLORES BLOOMINGDALE'S

Amy Elizabeth is visiting Grandma in New York; each day, Grandma plans to take her to "Bloomie's," but there's always something else they should do first: walk the dog, visit Chinatown to get green tea, go to a laundromat, or share lox and bagels and the Sunday Times. Amy Elizabeth never complains; but her expression is often doleful, and, in her astringently clearsighted narrative, she points out just how everything in New York differs from her home in Houston. As the week wears on, there are more smiles—for hot cocoa in a snowstorm, for a live production of Peter Pan, or just because the two are getting more companionable; as for Bloomie's, when it's time to go home Amy Elizabeth says, "I have had an excellent time not getting there." Understated, witty, and right on target; creatively extended in the author's perceptive, warmly colorful illustrations. (Picture book. 4-8)