WILL SPRING BE EARLY? OR WILL SPRING BE LATE?

Around the beginning of February the groundhog sticks his head out of his hole and asks his perennial question: "Will spring be early or will spring be late?" There is no doubt about this groundhog's preference, he fervently hopes for an early spring as do his animal friends in the woods. When a passing truck carrying artificial flowers drops a bright red rose on the snowy field, Groundhog is delighted and runs to the woods to deliver his good prediction. The animals rejoice, but Pig, a sceptic, nibbles greedily at the evidence and disgustedly reverses Groundhog's verdict: it is a paper flower and spring is nowhere near. The other animals are very sad, particularly Groundhog, who, nevertheless, every second day of February, pokes his head hopefully from his little hole, hoping to detect a glimmer of spring. A spry text and Crockett Johnson's beautiful wintry drawings retell with charm the seasonal fable of the groundhog's prophetic search for his shadow. In no sense a nature book.