STRAW SENSE

Young Goolam-Habib has not spoken since the night the forest burned, but at last an old man draws him out by inviting him to help make scarecrows for the strawberry fields. Working together with straw, scraps, and old clothes, the two build an amusing family: a man astride an ostrich, a wife, and their daughter, riding a bicycle. Dooling's expressive, realistic people are depicted against more freely rendered settings that are muted and frequently shadowy. The straw figures, too, are blurred, but their gangly awkwardness adds a happier note to this rather somber tale of intergenerational friendship. Rupert emphasizes the story's universality by leaving many details to conjecture—how Goolam- Habib came to be orphaned; even the setting, which might be South Africa. (Picture book. 7-9)