HANS THE MILLER MAN

Hans Millerman, lonely and longing for a friend, scorns the caterpillar who clings to him and sets out in search of another, leaving the caterpillar crying (and crying and crying) on the windowsill. He'd settle for a snowflake (that melts), a flower (that wilts), a fox (that disappears), even for the wind--who reminds him that both of them have work to do. Returning to his fields and his mill, he finds the caterpillar gone, a butterfly in its place--and the butterfly, promising friendship, reproaches him for impatience with the caterpillar. Pretty-pretty illustrations but pages of forlorn solitude, some insubstantial choices (i.e. the snowflake), and those excruciating caterpillar tears.