NETTLE JO'S FRIENDS

McKissack sends another self-reliant black child on another cheerful quest. Nettie Jo wants to take her shabby doll, Annie Mae, to the wedding at which she will be flower girl, but Mama says Annie Mae must have a new dress first, and Nettie Jo doesn't have a needle Mama is using hers to make Nettle Jo's dress. She asks Miz Rabbit, Fox, and Panther for help; but though she does each a good turn, they are all too wrapped up in their own concerns to pay attention to hers--or so it seems till they come running back to say ""Thank you,"" and bring a needle after all. Cook's lively paintings are luminous with rich color as Nettie Jo and her friends dance gracefully across a beautifully rendered landscape. A worthy companion to the author's Flossie and the Fox (1986).