BUZZY HAD A LITTLE LAMB

How do you cope when the thing you depend on for your security can’t come with you to school? Ziefert suggests one way in this simple offering decked out in Bolam’s color-as-thick-as-frosting art. Technically, call it compensation: Buzzy can’t bring his lamb doll (“Wherever Buzzy went, Little Lamb was sure to go.”), so Buzzy turns one of his new friends into a lamb while they’re playing and they sing—yeah, you guessed it. However, Ziefert isn’t as bald as all that. Before that happens, Buzzy has to learn to adjust and take his lumps, to overcome his sense of estrangement, to engage and make friends and then deploy some creative thought to everyone’s enjoyment (not to mention his own great gratification). That’s what school is all about, Ziefert suggests in her subdued way: learning to use the old bean in new and constructive ways. (Picture book. 2-5)