GRASSHOPPER ON THE ROAD

A young fellow going down the road and running into a succession of sillies is a common folklore theme, but this isn't just another variation. In a few words Lobel's grasshopper hero is given not only common sense but an engaging, open attitude as well, and the creatures he encounters are not interchangeable comic numbskulls but representatives of different, familiar foibles. Among them are a group of beetles who form a club to celebrate morning, but won't tolerate a member who also enjoys afternoon and evening; a broom-wielding housefly who started by sweeping a speck on the rug and is determined not to stop "until the whole world is clean clean clean"; and a mosquito who is such a stickler for rules that he insists on Grasshopper crossing the lake in his boat, though his prospective passenger can easily jump across and doesn't fit in the boat. Later three butterflies, creatures of habit, wish to include visits with Grasshopper in their ludicrously rigid daily routine, but he answers: "I will be moving on. I will be doing new things." And when his pace is scorned by two dragonflies so intent on zipping speedily onward that they haven't time to view the scenery: "He was happy to be walking slowly down the road." You can trust Lobel to provide beginning readers with just a little more thought food than meets the eye—while just as gently pleasing the eye with his soft-toned, harmonious illustrations.