ELEANOR, ARTHUR, AND CLAIRE

Claire loves visits with Grandma, a painter, and Grandpa, a sculptor. At times the two may quarrel, but their underlying affection and the gifts they create as peace offerings more than compensate. Then, Grandpa dies and Grandma moves in with Claire's family. At the end of a sad year, she and Claire go back to her home. It's not easy; missing the quarrels—especially their aftermath—Claire suggests that they make things for each other. Claire makes a clay bust of Grandpa; Grandma finishes the portrait she began of him long ago. In Engel's gentle illustrations, the characters are soft, gray mice that perfectly express the story's tenderness. With the importance it places on creativity in relationships and in working through grief, unusual and effective as well as appealing. (Picture book. 5-8)