BLACKBERRY RAMPLE

A busy but happy day for the Mouse family, which lives in a little house ""in the tall grass beyond Farmer Clem's barnyard."" After a morning of spring cleaning by the parents and mischief on the part of Baby--who gets swung through the air as a result of pulling the tail of Becky the cow--they set off on a picnic. Father lets Baby steer the car, which runs into poor Becky again (""What's gotten into that cow?"" wonders Farmer Clem). Then Baby falls out of the swing and into the picnic pie (""Oh, Baby! Now you've had your dessert before dinner!""). A ramble of a story indeed, but a warm, mellow, chuckly ramble. In deep, brilliant colors, impressionistically applied, Hurd suggests the beauty of an idyllic Vermont landscape from a mouse point-of-view while deftly conveying the humor of Baby's antics.