THE SECRET

Smoothly combining images of rocks, leaves, flowers, and other natural items with painted figures in bright, realistic, low-relief digital collages, George takes her audience to ground level for a game of pass-the-secret. What Mr. Snail tells mouse is immediately passed on to a beetle, who informs the turtle, thus beginning a long chain of gossip that ends at Miss Snail. The secret, revealed by Miss Snail’s answer, is “I love Miss Snail,” and unlike the usual result of “Telephone,” it plainly isn’t garbled at all on its circuitous route. George keeps her text to a minimum, and uses a different verb for each exchange: “The moth shook it to the bee, / who buzzed it to the caterpillar. / The caterpillar / tickled it to the worm. / The worm / hummed it to the chickadee.” Reminiscent of A Kiss for Little Bear, this offers unusual measures of verbal and visual delights. (Picture book. 5-7)