THE CACTUS FLOWER BAKERY
by Harry Allard & illustrated by Ned Delaney
Sunny, a snake, is ostracized by the other animals until Stewart, an armadillo mailman who has broken his glasses, turns up to become a friend and help her start a bakery. Alas! new glasses tell him the truth about Sunny; he bolts. Fortunately, good sense prevails: Stewart returns to apologize, carry on the bakery—and even explain to the others ``what a kind and gentle snake Sunny really was.'' This offbeat fable is told with pleasingly dry wit, winningly extended in Delaney's cartoonlike but endearing illustrations. (Picture book. 4-8)