Charlie the Caterpillar
PreSchool-Grade 2-- When Charlie the caterpillar wants to play, the other creatures refuse because they find him ugly. "Now giddadda here!" they tell him. Of course, Charlie eventually makes a cocoon, turns into a beautiful butterfly, and finds that the animals who scorned him now want his company. Very predictable stuff, this has little to recommend it. Santoro is a technically proficient illustrator but his cutesy cartoon drawings of Charlie are as trite as can be. No competition for Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar (Putnam, 1981) here. --Ann Stell, The Smithtown Library, NYCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.