POLLY AND THE PRIVET BIRD

Deciding that her overgrown privet bush is about to take over her garden, Polly snips it into a giant, sweet-looking topiary bird that she rides aloft on an adventure: she rescues a child who has fallen from a boat. Later, after a storm, the bird carries Polly to fetch groceries for her stranded neighbors. Only the children notice her extraordinary steed: ``Well, if they won't look they won't see,'' they observe of their parents. Finally, the grown-ups do see—but when they visit Polly's garden, the privet has reverted to its former shape and they laugh at their own foolishness. ``Well, if they won't believe, they won't know,'' say the children to Polly. The adventures here are stock, the message familiar; but Cartwright's telling is graceful and lively, while her husband's crisp, bright paintings are outstanding. His characterizations are slyly satirical, his bird a quietly imaginative pleasure, his light-bathed compositions mesmerizing. All in all, an appealing fantasy. (Picture book. 4-8)