cover image Joseph and Nellie

Joseph and Nellie

Bijou Le Tord. Bradbury Press, $10.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-02-756450-1

Joseph and Nellie, with their baby, get up early and go to their fishing boat. They chug out to sea and fish. When they return, the nets are hung up to dry, and they sell the catch of the day dockside. Then they all go home. The couple cooperates in the day's tasks, but the baby pictured at the beginning and end vanishes during the very long working day. Nellie is in less than half of the pictures. LeTord, who turned a how-to book into a work of art with Good Wood Bear, has here created a rather slim story. The paintingssoft watercolor washesare lovely, with almost enough details to carry the plot forward wordlessly. (4-7)