HOME BY FIVE

The rink closes at 4:30, and Papa says there will be no excuses for being late--it's only a four-block walk. Rosie does her best--she doesn't go into the bakery or slide on the ice--but she does have a knot in her skate lace, lingers while pondering a rhyme she makes up about a cat in a window, and takes in Mrs. Damon's newspaper so that it won't get snowed on. Half an hour late! Happily, Mama and Papa accept her explanations and come up with a solution to her tardiness: a watch. Perceptive and simply told, a warmhearted story appropriately illustrated with gentle impressionistic paintings.