When a peach wants to experience the world from a new perspective, Blue, a toad, takes her to his pond, where the two friends find that they can see the world better when they are together. While the sentimental story is touchingly told and accompanied by lush illustrations, the reader will wonder how, with all her bumps, Peach has survived to the last page.

K-Gr 2-An odd, farfetched story about a blue-bellied toad and a living, breathing, talking peach. The unlikely pair establish a deep, sentimental friendship after Blue assists Peach in falling from her branch. She wants to see the world, but it is she who helps Blue to view his pondside home in a fresh, new way. He propels her around in a leaf-lined bowl made of twigs and mud while she rhapsodizes about the ``harvest of colors'' that she beholds. Although the text is clear and well written, the story itself is too serious, saccharine, and self-consciously philosophical. Dark, well-composed paintings beautifully depict each stage of the low-key adventure. Blue is portrayed realistically, as are the natural surroundings, while Peach sports a somewhat ghostly face, making her look like a disembodied bald head. There is little here to appeal to children. Kate Spohn's Fanny and Margarita (Viking, 1993) is an overtly whimsical tale about talking fruit that intends to make readers laugh.-Valerie Lennox, Jacksonville Public Library, FL