ALVAH AND ARVILLA

Arvilla has always wanted to see the Pacific Ocean, but her husband Alvah, a practical, 19th-century New England farmer and man of few words, says, ""You can't have a farm and travel."" So, for 31 years Arvilla and Alvah stay home, until one day Arvilla has an idea: to build a house on wheels, put all their animals in it, and bring the entire farm with them. After careful thought, Alvah says, ""Ayuh."" So they build their land-roving arc -- Arvilla likes to think of it as a ""voiture"" -- and set off, accompanied by Betty, Blossom et al., their cows, sheep, cats, and dogs, and by their hens (although the hens, ""being very plural, were unnamed""). They travel across prairies and deserts (that will one day become Oklahoma and Arizona) and eventually reach the Pacific Ocean where, ""observing local custom, they all lay on the beach while Arvilla wrote postcards."" When they finally return home, Arvilla brings a little of the beach back with her. Brightly. illustrated in watercolors' Ray's (A Rumbly Tumbly Glittery Gritty Place, not reviewed) tale is Imaginative and humorous.