JACK AND JILL’S TREEHOUSE

The Jack and Jill of Edwards’s cumulative tale fetch not a pail of water but lumber; they are building a tree house. Then they fetch a whole lot more: an old quilt for a roof, a flashlight for nighttime illumination, a box for a table and treats to eat, all of which attracts friends for a visit and birds to serenade them to sleep. Each new item heralds a new line: “These are the treats / that were piled high on the table / that sat under the light / that hung from the roof / that was raised over the floor . . . ” Minus any lyricism (yet with a new, compacted spelling of “treehouse”), the text precludes a read-aloud with much swing, though it does possess a chugging, chanting dignity. Cole’s artwork, however, should keep readers’ eyes dancing, from the scene-setting, page-and-a-half, pastel-fresh spreads, with their diverting incidental activities, to the natty, pen-and-ink rebus-like images that follow upon each cumulative line. (Picture book. 4-7)