MORE MR. AND MRS. GREEN

The big-hearted alligators introduced in Meet Mr. and Mrs. Green (2002, but reformatted as an easy reader, too) return for three more feel-good episodes. Mr. Green catches fish after fish, leaving Mrs. Green “frustrated and fishless” until he shares his secret bait: jellybeans. He then gladly sits for a portrait that turns out decidedly cubist, and loses a race to the ice-cream truck when Mrs. Green cannily takes a shortcut. Identical, save for necktie and pearls in Baker’s bright green and yellow illustrations, the two have different but wonderfully compatible personalities; their relationship may not have the fizz of George and Martha’s, but they manage to express mutual affection without getting soppy about it. (Easy reader. 6-8)