GEMMA AND THE BABY CHICK

The author of The Mousehole Cat (1990, ALA Notable) brings unusual drama to a familiar event. When one of Gemma's hens goes ``broody,'' she and her mother put her in a special coop. Three weeks later, seven eggs hatch; the other three are cold, but when Gemma's mother floats them in warm water, one moves, then cheeps. Assuring Gemma that it will hatch by morning, her mother says, ``I'll wake you when the time comes.'' So she does, and Gemma holds the egg in her hand while the gawky chick make its way into the world; then—while it's still dark—the girl carries it to the barn right away, so that the hen will accept it as her own. Standard details, and more, are all here; tenderly, but without sentimentality, Barber depicts the hen's behavior and the humans' with equal insight. Applying watercolors with free strokes against an expansive white ground, Ö la Chinese painting, Littlewood (a British illustrator making her US debut) deftly captures the lively essence of the plump black-and-white hens and Gemma's companionable relationship with her mother. A fresh, imaginatively conceived look at a well-worn subject. (Picture book. 4-8)