DEAR PETER RABBIT
by Alma Flor Ada & illustrated by Leslie Tryon
The events in four familiar tales are cleverly intertwined and reported in a dozen letters. ``Pig One'' invites Peter Rabbit to a housewarming, but he can't go because he's in bed sipping camomile; Baby Bear wants his new friend Goldilocks McGregor to visit; Pigs One and Two report that they're now safely with Pig Three; Peter gets an unexpected invitation from Goldilocks and compliments the three pigs on the wolf's-tail soup served at the housewarming they finally managed to celebrate; the wolf orders a new tail and swears off pigs and little girls. Red Riding Hood wraps up events in a letter to her grandmother, while Tryon (Albert's Alphabet, 1991, ALA Notable) visualizes them in an inviting fairy-tale world, gently recalling both Gustave DorÇ and Beatrix Potter with entrancing, delicately colored crosshatched detail. In addition to more obvious uses, try a dramatic reading of these pleasingly childlike letters. Also available in Spanish (ISBN: 0-689-31915-0). (Picture book. 5-9)