Kevin Henkes, At Play Outdoors

Kevin Henkes often has animal protagonists--mice, a rabbit, a bear, a kitten.

Regardless of the animal, the emphasis is usually on a creature's imagination. So the creatures seem like human children--in disguise.

A kitten believes she sees a great glowing dish of milk in the sky. A rabbit ponders what it would be like to become a stone--unmovable. A mouse with big emotions dreams of subjugating her mildly unsatisfactory teacher; in one related piece of art, the teacher must sit in the "Time-Out Chair."

In my house, a favorite Henkes protagonist is Old Bear, who goes to sleep in the winter and immediately dreams of the spring. The flowers will be as tall as trees. You might take a nap "in a giant crocus."

It seems to me one of KH's many major gifts is that strange ability to slip into a kid's skin, to know what a kid might think or say in any situation. ("In my garden, carrots would be invisible, because I don't like carrots....")

Well, I'm off for a few days--to New York! See you soon.

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