EGG THOUGHTS, AND OTHER FRANCES SONGS

Besides the favorite "Soft-Boiled" from Bread and Jam for Frances (1964), 21 new poems with the same fresh but familiar appeal of the Frances stories. Who won't get a shock of recognition from "Homework sits on top of Sunday, squashing Sunday flat"? or sympathize with Frances' troubles with her little sister: "No one ever thinks she's tricky./ She spilled honey on the floor — / Mother found me very sticky./ Gloria was out the door./ When I caught her no one hit her./ I got spanked because I bit her/ Ear, that little Gloria sister./ Still, I guess I would have missed her."? As is evident above (and elsewhere — "I know kids who do not kick/ Stones down roads or even pick/ Sea-glass up on beaches"), Frances likes to end her rhymed lines in mid-sentence, which gives them a comfortably bumpy feel that nicely maintains her amateur status. Frances' songs will make new friends for the little badger, and keep some old ones who are outgrowing the picture books.