Otter Moon
Kindergarten-Grade 2—Sweeping watercolor views of a river flowing through wooded terrain suggest that this will be a realistic nature story. However, the fanciful tale of a playful young otter bedeviled by an elder takes anthropomorphic and murky turns. Flibbertigibbet loves the moon. "He watched its face in the water.... He'd been sent to catch fish, but he had been chasing froglets and newts instead." Flibberty's lollygagging is cut short by irascible King Otter: "Catch me a fish, and it had better be on a silver dish." The demand for a silver dish is perplexing to the young otter, and likely will be for some readers as well, for tableware is nowhere in evidence in this watery world. The otter spends the night in fruitless search, encouraged by a kindly heron. At dawn, when the hungry old otter appears once more, a fish is dropped from on high by the heron, "slap…on the shimmering dish." Although the pictured "dish" looks very much like a white crockery plate atop the water, it is apparently the reflection of the silvery moon. Though the metaphor is a bit strained and the tone sentimental, Humphries has a way with words and a good hand with a paintbrush. The hapless youngster abetted by a kindly guardian will probably be satisfying bedtime fare for some children.—Margaret Bush, Simmons College, BostonEND