HARRY IS A SCAREDY-CAT

We did not think we could take another picture book about a scaredy cat who turns suddenly brave after one pivotal experience, but Barton clearly asks no one to take Harry's metamorphosis seriously. While his abbreviated present tense primer style text simply lists page by page what Harry is afraid of — cars, the circus, balloons, lions, downs and acrobats among them — the pictures show him uneasily driving off with Dad to the big top, then being lifted into the air by a dutch of balloons, and falling when they burst first onto the high wire then onto a racing horse and at last onto a lion's head — so that "Harry is looking in the lion's eye." Whereupon Harry turns permanently from a scaredy cat to an acrobat, amazing his parents and friends. The happy match between Barton's blatant pop art style and the tone and setting of the story make it easy to relax and enjoy the ride.