TIGERELLA

By day, Ella seems a well-behaved little girl. ``Ella, aren't you a treasure?'' coo the guests at her barbecue. But by night, Ella turns into Tigerella, a tiger-girl who leaps into the heavens, bites a piece off the moon, and plays with the constellations. After she has romped with a stellar swan and bear, Tigerella is shot at by Orion, the hunter, whose arrow grazes her cheek. She hurls the arrow back, and she and the bear fall to earth, landing right next to Ella's garden pond. They say goodbye, and Ella slinks back through her window and again becomes a little girl—with a mysterious scratch on her cheek. Wright, a well-known British poet, delivers an imaginative and beautifully told tale here. His language is both straightforward and soaring, and Bailey's illustrations are playful. (Picture book. 4-7)