ELLEN AND PENGUIN

The idea isn't new—Ellen's toy penguin, protected with motherly care and concern, is part imaginary friend and part surrogate for her own timidity—but it's explored here with unusual delicacy. When Penguin snuggles deep into Ellen's pocket because he's scared, Ellen, too, can be seen clinging close to her mother; when Ellen's too shy to join in at the playground (and too encumbered by Penguin to catch a ball), it's Penguin who wants to go home. In the end, Penguin helps make a bridge to another shy, quiet child and her toy monkey. Vulliamy, who illustrated Anne Fine's Poor Monty (1992), again exhibits her mother Shirley Hughes's affectionate perspicacity toward the child's world while bringing her own special insight to their intimate emotions. A lovely, warm story that makes a nice companion to Oxenbury's Tom and Pippo books. (Picture book. 3-7)