AUNT NANCY AND COUSIN LAZYBONES

Mountain humor abounds in this newly spun yarn by the pair that hatched Aunt Nancy and Old Man Trouble (1996). When Cousin Lazybones arrives, Aunt Nancy is hoping for help around the cabin, but all she gets is a pack of excuses and a heap of do-nothings. When asked to fetch water or find eggs, Cousin Lazybones complains of "a little hitch in my git-along," and parks himself in Aunt Nancy's favorite chair, sawing down acres of forest as he sleeps all day. Fed up to her bonnet with his shenanigans, Aunt Nancy invents her own ailment_a bone in her legs_that prevents her from fixing Cousin Lazybones any more meals. Aunt Nancy is a quick-witted, spry old woman, foiling the freeloading Cousin Lazybones in a side-splitting storyline and earning herself a vacation to boot. Root's homey narrative style is ripe to read aloud, and Parkins's kick-up-your-heels illustrations are reason enough to turn cartwheels. (Picture book. 4-8)