THE TRAM TO BONDI BEACH

An earlier book (1981) from the splendid illustrator of The Nativity (1988), showing her strong sense of design and movement, inspired orchestration of crowds of lively figures, and ebullient humor. The adequate but unexceptional story here--about a nine-year-old boy who almost loses his chance to be a newsboy when he's caught jumping from a moving tram, but gets the job after all on condition that he ride the tram to the beach and sell papers there--was originally published as an early independent reader in Australia; it should serve the same function here, with the added attraction of presenting the land Down Under as it was a couple of generations ago.