SUCH a good book. The illustrations are soft, and while the text is a bit all over the place, the story is engaging. I mean, it's about a squash named Bernice!!! ( )

In the Hmong tradition, the song poet recounts the story of his people. This book retells the life of Bee Yang, the song poet, a Hmong refugee in Minnesota driven from the mountains of Laos by America's Secret War. Bee sings the life of his people through the war-torn jungle and a Thai refugee camp. But the songs fall away in the cold, bitter world of a Minneapolis housing project and on the factory floor until, with the death of Bee's mother, the songs leave him for good. But before they do, Bee, with his poetry, has polished a life of poverty for his children, burnished their grim reality so that they might shine.

A young girl befriends a squash.

When Sophie and her parents purchase a butternut squash at the farmer's market, the young girl immediately adopts the piece of produce as her baby and best friend, naming it Bernice. Nothing her parents do can change her mind - she isn't interested in any other kind of companion or plaything. When Bernice begins to rot, Sophie puts her "to bed" in the ground, and the next spring, Bernice has had children...

Pairing a sweet story and cute artwork, Sophie's Squash is a picture-book that I should have enjoyed more than I did, especially given my fondness for autumnal scenes. Unfortunately, while there was nothing really wrong here, I just failed to have any particularly strong reaction to the book, whether positive or negative. Perhaps I just have difficulty anthropomorphizing squash, but it was difficult to take Sophie's squash 'friend' seriously, and the jaded part of me kept thinking: do we really need to encourage children to befriend their vegetables, rather than eat them? Tastes vary, of course, and others seem to have really enjoyed this one, so if the picture-book reader is in the market for autumnal/seasonal stories about friendship and the natural world, this might fit the bill. ( )

Gift from Margy Elliott

Sophie chooses a squash with her parents at the farmers' market, but by dinnertime, Sophie has drawn a face on the squash and wrapped it in a blanket. "I call her Bernice." Her mother replies, "I'll call for a pizza." After that, Bernice goes everywhere with Sophie, but eventually, Bernice loses some of her bounce. Sophie denies that there is anything wrong, but soon even she must admit that Bernice isn't as firm and glossy as the other squash at the farmers' market. She asks a farmer how to keep squash healthy, and takes his advice, tucking Bernice into a garden bed for the winter. In the spring, Bernice has transformed - and had babies! (There's a sequel.) ( )