Grandpa Bear's Fantastic Scarf

What a tangled story Heal (The Halfpennys Find a Home) weaves in this strained picture book. Grandpa Bear's long scarf contains ""yards of colors,"" with each thread representing a different day of his life. Most of the colors woven into the scarf are bright and happy; some are dark like a ""bad, gray, sad day""; and some days are so wonderful that Grandpa Bear uses ""special yarn-fluffy or glittery"" to help remember them. Grandpa Bear's young grandcub absorbs all this information and begins to formulate thoughts about the rainbow of yarn he'll weave into his own scarf. Heal's hodgepodge of positive messages never quite gels into a cohesive story line. She frequently makes confusing digressions from the scarf metaphor (""And then there is light and dark. Without light we would not know dark, and without dark we would not know light. Without cold we would not know how nice it is to be warm""). Her vibrant watercolors, however, are more successful and range from nearly electric yellows and reds to cool, somber blues and grays. Her brown, slightly fuzzy bears hold hands and laugh together, reinforcing the rapport so laboriously established in the text. Ages 4-10. (Mar.)