MILLY AND TILLY

The best thing about this rather insipid reworking of this ancient tale is its gorgeous jacket painting: full of lush detail in texture, fabric, flora, and fauna, with berries ripe enough to eat, a steaming pot, and upholstery lovingly rendered. Surprisingly, the illustrations within are wan and lacking in energy or depth. In her debut, Summers reprises the familiar tale: Country mouse Tilly lives in the roots of an old tree, domestic as all get out as she sweeps and sews and puts food by for the winter. Her friend Milly visits from town, but misses cheese and cannot sleep for the quiet. Milly returns the hospitality; Tilly is enchanted by the dollhouse in which Milly lives in the city, but dislikes the house cat. A much livelier rendering of this story can be found in Jan Brett's Town Mouse, Country Mouse (1994). (Picture book/folklore. 3-6)