HERE COMES THE MYSTERY MAN

From the team that created Warm As Wool (1992), another happy episode in the pioneer Midwest. Word comes that the itinerant peddler who stops but twice a year is on his way, and the four young Goodwins are breathless with anticipation until the cheery bearded gentleman hoves into view. After a warm welcome and a fine meal, he lays out his treasures—a ship in a bottle, a compass, seeds from the Shakers, a whale's tooth—plus news gathered on his travels. When the children slip off to bed, they're filled with wonder at the wideness of the world and its many marvels. Cogancherry captures their magical sense of excitement with large, neat paintings of fresh-faced children in a glorious autumn landscape and a well-kept, sparsely furnished farm household. A joyful evocation of a past when any visit was a special occasion, and steamboats were only a peddler's tale. (Picture book. 7-10)