THE HAPPY PLACE

Bemelmans in an animal story with a bittersweet moral, narrated with his calm humor, is a success. Winthrop, a forlorn Easter bunny, is bought at the last minute from his New York Department store hutch, reduced from $2.98 to $1.78. Ousted from his new family after a few days of misbehaving, Winthrop is set just inside Central Park at 104th St. Right away he is chased all the way down to the 70's by a whippet. He befriends a frog, then hops to the zoo and befriends a lonely but sympathetic elephant who sends him back to the frog with a present of a glass frog- the elephant's only companion piece- which in turn gets eaten by and causes the death of a cormorant. Adults too will feel a twinge at the double meaning about giving and happiness, and enjoy seeing the wonderful Bemelmans' pictures.