cover image Hello Barney!

Hello Barney!

Mary K. Pershall. Viking Children's Books, $11.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-670-82406-9

Like Diane Stanley's Captain Whiz-Bang , though not as deftly written, the story of Barney the cockatoo records the passage of time and the love of a pet. When he is a boy, William Jackson traps Barney, a cockatoo fledgling living in the Australian bush. As ``summer heat follows winter rain, year after year after year,'' William marries, has children, watches his family leave him and grows old, alone but for Barney. One day William leaves Barney's cage door open and does not return; Barney flies toward the sunlight and finds a new home with a little girl. The narrator's voice is uneven, wobbling between poetic language and factual detail. Wilson's sensitive canvases, thick with paint and light, are rendered beautifully, but the text design, with words superimposed over complicated illustrations, makes the book difficult to read. Ages 3-8. (June)