The rose in my garden

A horticultural House That Jack Built--with the infectiousness of a nursery rhyme, an abundance of child-wise visual detail, a rousing return-to-square-one climax. The first stanza is picture-book genius: ""This is the rose in my garden/ This is the bee/ That sleeps on the rose in my garden."" There is the garden, flora and fauna; there, in abeyance, is ""the plot""--for what sleeps must awaken. Successively, other flowers join the rose: ""Hollyhocks high above ground,"" ""marigolds orange and round,"" ""zinnias straight in a row,"" ""daisies white as the snow""--and, lastly, ""tulips sturdy and tall,"" ""sunflowers tallest of all."" (Gardeners will regret--but mostly forgive--seeing spring tulips alongside summer's-end sunflowers.) Meanwhile one or another garden denizen--snail, butterfly, beetle, hummingbird, ladybug, ant--makes its way (often, from literally outside the picture) into the scene, to go about its customary business unnoted except by any and every child. Then, a disruption: ""This is the fieldmouse shaking in fear""--who'll be chased by ""the cat with the tattered ear,"" tearing through the flower-border, waking the bee. . . who (wordlessly) stings the cat, leaving ""the rose in my garden."" An old English floral design, in effect, come to exuberant life. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.