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LEO AND EMILY by Franz Brandenberg Kirkus Star

LEO AND EMILY

By

Pub Date: March 9th, 1981
Publisher: Greenwillow

In three deftly, astutely, hilariously linked episodes, neighbors Leo and Emily, first--get up in the dark (""Early in the Morning""), proudly dress themselves--cockeyed, break up laughing ("". . . and I bet you forgot to put on your underwear""), then accept their parents' plaudits, anyhow. Next, and most unorthodox, comes ""The Swap"": Leo's rabbit for Emily's grandmother's wig! The exchange takes place, again, before daybreak (but: ""You are wearing your dress forward, and your shoes are on the right feet,"" says Leo--though we can see that her dress is unbuttoned); Grandmother, kerchiefed, doesn't object to doing without her wig ""for a day""; Leo sells peeks at the wig at ten cents each; Emily & family have a circus with Leo's rabbit; and Leo and Emily wind up with the wherewithal to buy a rabbit for Emily. . . and ""a set of false teeth and a top hat"" for Leo. That, of course, brings us to ""Magic""--because Leo's rabbit is white and Emily's is black, just for one unexpected thing. With grandmother appropriately popping in bewigged at the end, and with the two parting appropriately ""until five in the morning,"" it's one after another surprise and reprise, all buoyantly wrapped up in good feelings.