A PICNIC IN OCTOBER

Bunting (I Have an Olive Tree, p. 719, etc.) once again explores larger themes through a quiet family story. Every October, on Lady Liberty’s birthday, Tony and his extended family have a picnic on Liberty Island. The family rendezvous at Battery Park to take the ferry out to the island. Waiting in line, Tony, who thinks the picnic is pretty corny, is approached by a woman, obviously a new immigrant. She gestures her alarm when the ferry departs without her; she is soothed when Tony motions that the ferry will return. Once on the island, Tony’s family has the picnic before toasting the statue and blowing kisses to her. Later, Tony spies the woman he had helped earlier, and the way they look up at the statue, “so still, so respectful, so . . . so peaceful, makes me choke up.” This sense of refuge drifts through Bunting’s text, as fundamental and natural an element of life as are the everyday incidentals she braids into the story and all of which are exquisitely caught by Carpenter’s vivid illustrations. (Picture book. 5-10)