CLEVER CROW
by Cynthia DeFelice & illustrated by S.D. Schindler
From DeFelice (Willy's Silly Grandma, 1997, etc.), a rollicking, rhyming read-aloud with a clever little girl and the crow of the title. Crow loves shiny things, and steals Emma's mother's keys right off the front porch. Emma, not to be outdone, lures the bird with a silver ball, ``made of silver wrappers from/Thirty zillion sticks of gum.'' While Emma gets the keys back, Crow has the last laugh; as Emma and her mother drive off, the bird flies in through an open window to steal a pocket mirror. The colored- pencil on parchment paper illustrations are appealingly contemporary: Emma has pierced ears, jeans, sneakers, and her hair is in a scrunchy. Schindler provides nice symmetry between Crow's shiny treasures and Emma's under-the-bed box. (Picture book. 3-8)