MISS MAGGIE

A nicely staged but ultimately sentimental picture of an old Appalachian cabin dweller, Miss Maggie, and a young boy, Nat, who occasionally peers through her windows but is afraid to enter her cabin because of the black snake folks say hangs from her rafters. One cold morning when Nat sees no smoke issuing from Miss Maggie's chimney, his ""heart"" (concern) overcomes his ""head"" (fear) and he finds the old woman huddled by her empty fireplace clutching her dead pet Henry, nota shake after all but a starling. Rylant evokes some regional atmosphere in her earlier descriptions, and Di Grazia's soft-pencil drawings follow her signals, but add nothing. They're so vacant they have a dulling effect.