STRAWBERRY DRESS ESCAPE

Anyone who has felt bored and dry on a hot, hot day near the end of the school year will be ready to slip away and down the dirt road with Emily, flying freely above a field, then landing to drink the milk of her pet goat Emerald and eat the fruit from a basket under a tree. When a snake suggests that she skip rope, this activity turns into a slow, sleepy floating up and down, until in the center of the field Emily kicks off her shoes (which become pigeons) and curls up in a golden brass bed. What a blissful way to be read to sleep. . .in lighter-than-air prose that breaks into rhyme as Emily's spirits surge and in pastel-soft paintings of a rainbow colored field and a brownskinned Emily in her old-fashioned summer weight strawberry print dress.