THE DAY THE PICTURE MAN CAME

A farm child’s bad day turns about more than once in this helter-skelter episode. Having already been “fussed out” for trying on her big sister’s bonnet, and then letting the goat get hold of it, and then having to endure “every stinging pest in the Georgia mountains” while picking blackberries, Emily’s hopes for an end to her troubles goes glimmering with the arrival of Cecil Bramlett, itinerant photographer. How hard can it be to get family and pets to hold still long enough for a picture? Try . . . impossible. Unfortunately, uninspired visuals send the promising premise glimmering too; not only has Meidell (Full Steam Ahead, not reviewed, etc.) chosen not to depict the first round of domestic chaos, but her brushwork has a heavy, paint-by-numbers look that makes it hard to follow the action in each over-busy scene. A mediocre variation on Nancy Willard’s Simple Pictures Are Best, illustrated by Tomie dePaola (1977). (Picture book. 7-9)