THE OLD MAN WHO LOVED CHEESE

From Keillor (Cat, You Better Come Home, 1995), another tale of gustatory excess and ultimate redemption. Wallace P. Flynn's fondness for cheese—the smellier the better—drives away his family, causes passing animals to faint, and at last forces the neighbors to call the Cheese Police. Flynn steadfastly refuses to forego the fromage—until his son, presenting a wife and child, offers an alluring alternative: "Why devote your life to cheese/When you can have a grandbaby on your knees?" Quitting the queso cold turkey, Flynn finds his wife in the Hebrides and settles down to a life of low-fat bliss. The cheery cheesehead capers giddily through the energetically drawn and brushed watercolors of Wilsdorf (Princess, 1993), as comic expressions of dismay on surrounding people and animals change to pleased smiles after Flynn's reformation. Using, it seems, every conceivable rhyme scheme, Keillor sacrifices smoothness of reading and stretches the text a bit further than it needs to go, but his gift for Ogden Nash-style rhymes will have readers rolling in the aisles: "From now on this shall be my goal: a/Life of zero Gorgonzola. (Picture book. 7-10)