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The Neat Line: Scribbling Through Mother Goose    by Pamela Duncan Edwards & Diana Cain Bluthenthal Amazon.com order for
Neat Line
by Pamela Duncan Edwards
Order:  USA  Can
Katherine Tegen, 2005 (2005)
Hardcover

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* * *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

This is one of those delightful picture books that adults love for their originality as much as kids do for the story. Pamela Duncan Edwards introduces a baby scribble who 'practiced and practiced and practiced' till it grew up to be 'a Neat Line' and wriggled into a real book. Diana Cain Bluthenthal's illustrations cleverly insert the little Line into each familiar tale.

In Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes (excerpts from the originals are in here too), the Neat Line helps the characters through their stories, from Little Boy Blue (the line 'drew itself into a horn') to Jack and Jill (a pathway is drawn), Mary Mary (a raincloud), and Little Miss Muffet (a bird). Finding all this problem solving hard work, the Neat Line tiredly finishes with a night scene.

Small readers will love pouncing on the innovations to familiar stories, and will happily settle down for the night, after watching all the hard work involved. The Neat Line is a charmer.

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