MELISSA

The author/illustrator specializes in travelogue stories; this one describes life on a farm in East Europe as seen through the cosmopolitan eyes of a big-city girl. Melissa tries to be blase about it all, but the illustrations are proof that she isn't really. The explanation of the farm routine is enlivened with an incident in which Melissa is taken on a hunt but decides to rescue the rabbits instead. The tone of the present-tense narration seems geared more to parents than children, but the simple story is lively and pleasant. The drawings are done in Miss Weil's familiar dashed off, abbreviated Bemelmans style, contain amusing, active details, but the blue and yellow coloring is bland.