GUY AND THE FLOWERING PLUM TREE

A fanciful projection--of the nature-celebrating sort--that flies in the face of reason. When Guy thinks he may have swallowed a plum pit and asks what might happen, his mother absent-mindedly answers that he'd ""grow a tree inside""; and the reader cringes, thinking of the nightmarish visions most kids would have. But Guy blissfully imagines ""himself as a graceful flowering shrub, hung about with bright-colored blossoms""; his sister and parents go along; and most of the rest of the book catalogues the array of flowers, birds, animals, and butterflies that Guy-the-tree would harbor or shelter. Finally he discovers he didn't swallow the pit; never mind, his mother consoles him: ""It's much more fun to be a boy."" Namby-pamby, pretty-pretty, and most unlikely.