Each Peach Pear Plum

The Ahlberg penchant for playing with nursery characters (Jeremiah in the Dark Woods, 1978) has issue this time in a more traditional, pastoral-pretty nursery book. "Each Peach Pear Plum/ I spy Tom Thumb," reads the first couplet (of what was originally a counting-out rhyme), while opposite Tom sits half-hidden in a tree; "Tom Thumb in the cupboard/ I spy Mother Hubbard" shows him in plain sight and - look sharp! - only her posterior, looming in the picture's corner. And so it goes, with a new character named - and cleverly half-concealed - at each of the openings. Youngsters will enjoy spying them out and appreciate their comical faces until at the finale - "Plum Pie in the sun/ I spy. . . EVERYONE!" - they all spring out from concealment and sit down to a picnic feast. Once you've seen it, true, there are no surprises but, for the very young, there's another sort of satisfaction from knowing what's coming next. (Kirkus Reviews)