THE JUST-RIGHT, PERFECT PRESENT

The folks from The Pickle Patch Bathtub (2004) are back for another reunion at Grandpapa and Grandmama’s. As people pack up to go home, Grandpapa announces that he and Grandmama will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary when the apple orchard (that they had planted) is ripe with fruit. He requests that one of his grandchildren recite a poem for Grandmama that will make him proud. Donna’s sure it will be her, but the hard part is choosing the right poem. She settles on “The Owl and the Pussycat” and practices everywhere she goes. But her boastful cousin, John picks the same poem. In a pickle, Donna searches for another poem and finds it. At the anniversary party, John recites the Lear rhyme, but it’s Donna’s recitation of “The Planting of the Apple Tree” by William Cullen Bryant that is the “just-right, perfect present.” Rich in lemon/lime undertones, the oil/acrylic collages match the old-fashioned, folksy feeling of the text. An engaging peek at family life in earlier days when grandkids begged to gather eggs and poetry was as good a gift as a ribbon-tied package. (Picture book. 5-8)