AMOS & BORIS

Deftly proportioned and disarmingly matter-of-fact, the story of a friendship between Amos, an adventurous mouse who goes to sea "full of wonder, full of enterprise, and full of love for life," and Boris, the accommodating whale who rescues Amos from drowning and carries him home on his back. The friends part then, but years later when Boris is washed ashore by hurricane Yetta, Amos has a chance to reciprocate: he fetches two goodhearted elephants to push the whale back out to sea. Amos' feat is perhaps less satisfying than that of Aesop's mouse who gnaws the lion's ropes without any help from his oversized friends, but there is no question that Steig's affectionately witty pictures and perfectly complementary narration make this a durable picture book friendship.