Taking the lively lyric from Love’s Labor’s Lost, Hall makes a cheery mixed-media collection of images in bright colors, fulsome textures and an Elizabethan air. The venerable Alice Provensen writes a brief introduction and an even briefer glossary tides small readers over a few rough spots. Each line has its own double page of wintry illustration, helping to illuminate meaning as well. It reads aloud as vividly as it did 400 years ago: “Tom bears logs into the hall” and “milk comes frozen in the pail.” The owl is heard as a merry note, and coughing drowns out the sermon. “Marian’s nose looks red and raw,” but she is tossing snowballs anyway, and the “roasted crabs” are clearly crab apples in a steaming bowl. A fine winter read-aloud and an appropriate introduction to the Bard for this age group. (Picture book. 4-8)
