Missing: One Stuffed Rabbit

After losing Coco the class pet at a shopping mall, second-grader Janine learns that the stuffed rabbit has mistakenly been given as part of a toy distribution at a local hospital.

Kindergarten-Grade 2AMrs. Robin's second grade class pet, Coco, a stuffed rabbit, has a journal. A drawing is held each day to see who Coco will go home with, and this time the lucky winner is Janine, who will be able to keep the toy for the whole weekend. She is also the one who will get to contribute Coco's journal entry, written from his point of view. Janine takes Coco everywhere with her, and even reads him a bedtime story. But the next day, when she sits down to lunch with her family after a long day at the mall, she realizes that the toy is lost and must face her classmates without him on Monday. The children all pitch in to find him, and eventually they doAjust as he is being given to a child at a local hospital. The class decides that the girl needs Coco more than they do, and Janine writes his final journal entry about his new home and new name. Bold, colorful gouache and colored-pencil illustrations, some of which are framed in a notebooklike print, are appealing, as is the totally satisfying conclusion.ADeAnn Tabuchi, San Anselmo Public Library, CA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.