DEAR DAISY, GET WELL SOON

Smith (This Is Your Garden, 1998) tucks a primer of the days of the week and the numbers one through five into the grand notion of being a good friend. Peter's pal and next-door neighbor, Daisy, has the chicken pox and is confined to her room. Peter sends her little entertainments: a card, some coloring books, a posy of bright flowers. These gifts are ferried from Peter's house to Daisy's—the card on Monday, two bunches of flowers on Tuesday, three coloring books on Wednesday, and so on—by Peter's personal bestiary. (They are really his stuffed toys now grown big and sparked with life, though later returned to their bedside home.[) By Saturday, Daisy's all better and sends a card back to go outside and play. A card and a gift when you are sick is still as valuable as an equal measure of medicine, and Smith makes the act a very winning one in these vividly colored pages. Her artwork is full of incident and merriment and fully occupies the twopage spreads. There is also a refrain—“and sent it over to Daisy”—that will give young readers an opportunity to chime in. (Picture book. 3-5)