WHEN WE GO WALKING

Family strolls down Rambling Road in every season turn into treasure hunts for 5-year-old Wendy.

And what treasures she finds! As other family members simply point out animals, a plane passing overhead and other sights (Abe the toddler is big on colors), everything else—from a wagon wheel to a broken kite, from loose letters and numbers to a pencil that works and a clock that doesn’t—goes in her collecting bag. The trash and litter are scrupulously brought to the dump, but what will she do with all the rest? When winter snows bring a (temporary) stop to outdoor walks, she assembles a “Rambling Road” in her room, inviting her appreciative clan in for a visit. Muted colors and smiling, softly rounded figures add cozy notes to Brooker’s paint-and–photo-collage illustrations. Viewers who linger over each scene will be rewarded with small birds, flowers and other background details, plus all sorts of enticing found objects.

A tempting invitation to turn any walk into an equally fruitful ramble, even if the treasures are gathered only by eye rather than by hand.