MABEL, ONE AND ONLY

Little Mabel is an only (and lonely) child, with just her large, rambunctious and very hairy dog, Jack, for companionship due to a lack of children in their urban neighborhood. Mabel and Jack play some games outside and make visits to three nearby apartments, where the adult neighbors chat briefly with their young friend before returning to their adult tasks. When Mabel finds a large, empty carton and a bent bicycle wheel, she and Jack (and the story) take off in quite another direction as girl and dog blast off into outer space in their invented spaceship. The lead-up to this payoff, while lengthy, underscores both Mabel’s loneliness and the warmth of the adults in her life, but children may not have the patience to wait for it. Avril’s lively illustrations, especially of the imaginary outer-space scenes, add pizzazz to Mabel’s story, and the page-turn into blast-off mode shows the power of a child’s imagination to turn a few mundane supplies into a creative adventure. (Picture book. 3-5)