THE CUCKOO BIRD

Warned to let no one in, a little girl repels a cuckoo's advances when he comes disguised as a soldier and then as an old man, but she's fooled when he becomes a baby and takes him in—an error she regrets as soon as his raucous, insatiable demands begin. When Grandmother returns, she suggests ignoring the greedy bird, but finally it's the child who tempts him out of the house with an apple. Corbalis weaves universal themes into a compelling tale, ably extended in Armitage's vigorous watercolors, where the cuckoo's changing form is reiterated across pages like insistent pecking, and somber shadows underline the story's darker side: powerful stuff—agreeably leavened by the comic exaggeration of a baby's normal behavior and the loving collaboration that ousts the intruder. (Picture book. 6-9)