NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Taking full advantage of the fact that even the most trite sentiments will be new to young children, Emmett and Cabban send the mole introduced in Bringing Down the Moon (2001) off to find a new home that’s “BIG and BRIGHT and BEAUTIFUL.” Gamboling through open, idyllic woods and meadows, Mole tries out alternatives offered by fuzzy friends Hedgehog, Squirrel and Rabbit. After discovering that a hollow log is BIG but drafty, an abandoned treetop nest is BRIGHT but precarious, and a streamside cove is BEAUTIFUL but wet, he returns to his spacious, well-lit, comfortable burrow, quoting the title line as if it were his own. Such similar but more adventuresome quests as Eric Carle’s House For Hermit Crab (1987) or Liesel Moak Skorpen’s We Were Tired Of Living In A House, illustrated by Joe Cepeda (1999), have far more to offer readers than this bland, superficial outing. (Picture books. 4-6)