cover image Polly and the Privet Bird

Polly and the Privet Bird

Ann Cartwright. Hutchinson Radius, $16.95 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-09-173675-0

The Cartwrights have established an entertaining and distinctive style, featuring rounded landforms and sausage-like people rendered in vivid colors. Here, a lady named Polly tames her rambling privet bush (``it had grown so wild and unruly that it threatened to smother all the flowers'') by clipping it into the shape of a bird. Distressed by ``the sound of children crying,'' Polly mounts the topiary creature, and the pair wings away to aid the youngsters. Other good works follow, though--trading on a common theme--only the children take the time to see Polly flying through the sky; the adults are too rooted in their mundane existence to notice. When the grownups finally check out the proceedings, the privet is once again ``a tangle of untidy leaves.'' Though the book's art and design are as clean as a whistle, they can't quite make up for the bland text. Once the bird soars off, its story unfortunately takes a dive into muddy waters. Ages 4-7. (Jan.)