cover image If You Were A--

If You Were A--

Riana Duncan. Barron's Educational Series, $8.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-8120-5801-7

A boy wonders what would happen if he were a bird and, as a result, sprouts wings and a beak. He bathes in a puddle, eats worms and can fly. Then a cat strolls by, and the bird's beak becomes a snout, his wings become front legs, and he evolves into a dog. The cat's owner comes after the dog, and the dog turns into a lion. Yet even a lion's life has problems, and the boy becomes a boy again. The gray transformations are like changing wisps of clouds; Duncan's drawings make the impossible seem within grasp. Even though the boy's circuitous route back to being himself can be predicted from the outset, the book shows an imaginative answer to the old ""what if'' question. Ages 3-6. (March)