NICHOLAS CRICKET

Nicholas Cricket plays every night/in the Bug-a-Wug Cricket Band./Moonlight glows and summer wind blows,/rabbits come dancing on tip-tippy toes./The music is just so grand!"" So begins the almost mesmerizing, rhythmic verse that evokes a sumptuous, nightlong, music-making celebration in the animal world, with banjo-strumming Nick leading the way. Joyce's elegantly defined, fantastical paintings are just right for this imaginative event: setting the creatures in theatrical intents--reached through a steamy, moonlit riverside landscape--and dressing them to the nines in his best F. Scott Fitzgerald style, he spins this gossamer piece into a comic, stylish picture book.