THE BIRD, THE FROG, AND THE LIGHT

An intriguing original fable concerning a self-styled "Frog King" who invites a bird he's overheard singing to the sun into his underground "kingdom." It's too dark to see there; still, the frog describes his throne, army, wealth, and great library, allowing the bird to touch everything before sending her to procure a ray of light from her friend the sun so that they can see these wonders. But the light shows how vain the frog's boasting has been: There are only a few scraps of junk in his domain; his crown is a bottle cap, his library a single page that he can't read. The light of truth, the story suggests, unmasks ignorance, but there's hope for this foolish posturer: He asks the bird to teach him to read. Using colored pencils over airbrushed backgrounds, Henry makes a fine debut. The smoothly rotund bird and frog are set in a luminous landscape invoked with a few carefully rendered details; the darkly mysterious underground scenes are delicately bordered with the frog's imagined riches. Spare and well-told, a tale that will especially lend itself to discussion. (Picture book. 5-9)