Silly Tilly and the Easter Bunny

K-Gr 3 Tilly Mole wakes up one morning, smells jelly beans in the wind, and remarks to herself, ```It must be Easter.''' Easter it is, but that's the only thing Tilly gets right during the morning. She keeps forgetting to remember what she's about: looking for her glasses, which are pushed up onto her forehead, she bumps into a chair and thinks it's the Easter Bunny; she goes to make tea, but forgets what she went to the stove for, and she puts a flower pot on her head as an Easter bonnet. So it goes, with the forgetful Tilly muddling one thing after another, till she finally manages to sit down to tea and jelly beans with the Easter Bunny. Kids will get a laugh out of Tilly's goofs, which are genuinely gently funny, and smack their lips over the basket the Bunny brings. It's a pleasure to see Hoban's pencil and wash soft line drawings in full color; their bright pinks, yellows, lavenders suit Tilly's silliness and the story's season. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Seasonal tales are always popular with the Early I Can Read Book fan, and this one adds humor of a kind to amuse young readers. Silly Tilly Mole is so excited about the imminent arrival of the Easter Bunny that she gets flustered and forgets what she is doing (looking for the glasses on her forehead, making tea to offer the visitor, etc.). This is the kind of silliness that five and six-year-olds find funny. Some may have mixed feelings about the ageism/sexism/handicapism involved in poking fun at absent-minded, nearsighted, little old ladies, but the humor is not unkind and the book is dedicated to ""all grandmothers."" Hoban is very good at writing these simple stories. In spite of the slight plots possible at this level, she manages to make her characters seem real and to Fred both humor and music in their conversation. An unexceptional but pleasant book, good for swelling the shelves for beginning readers. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.