WILLIAM AND THE GOOD OLD DAYS
by Eloise Greenfield & illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist
Young William thinks about his ailing grandmother, just home from the hospital, remembering the good times in her small diner and hoping for more of them when she's feeling better. His changing moods are wonderfully evoked in Gilchrist's paintings; sadder memories, rendered in sepia tones, brighten into warm browns and yellows as William plans a happier future. Aside from one unrealistically artful line—about Grandma ``back in the good old days, last year when I was little''—the boy's voice and the progression of his thoughts are natural and childlike. Uncontrived comfort for young readers disturbed by a family member's illness. (Picture book. 6-8)