TREASURE HUNT

Ahlberg and Tyler (Snail House, 2001) celebrate the playful games that deepen family ties; each morning brings a succession of treasure hunts, as Tilly’s mother hides her breakfast banana in the kitchen, her father hides her sock rabbit in the garage—and where has the cat gone off? Even grandma gets into the game, hiding chocolate coins on Tilly’s birthday. Tilly crows with pleasure each time she finds another “treasure,” and turns the tables at bedtime, as her fond parents hunt high and low before “finding” her behind the curtains. Tyler’s small domestic scenes are rendered in such pale colors and fine, sketchy detail that even though the hidden objects (and the chubby post-toddler) are always in plain sight, viewers too will have to hunt for them. A cozy companion for such similar explorations of family ritual as Ezra Jack Keats’s Peter’s Chair (1967) and Vera Williams’s “More, More, More,” Said the Baby (1990). (Picture book. 3-5)