NUTS

In this triumphant, if unlikely, take on Matthew 6:26 (“They sow not, neither do they reap . . . yet your heavenly father feedeth them”), a mouse sets out to “reap” nuts from a distant tree, oblivious to warnings of a storm, a tractor and a dog in the way. After a long and hazardous trek, she arrives at the tree just as the wild storm does, settles down in a comfy hole to nap and when she wakes, the nuts have all been blown away. Disappointed, she returns to her burrow—where she discovers heaps of windblown nuts piled at her doorstep. Gerritsen depicts overcast skies and stubbly fields in autumnal colors, decking Mouse out in a long scarf and bright red coat that provide visual focus even when the point of view pulls back. Aesop’s grasshopper should have been so lucky. (Picture book. 6-8)