Who can resist feeling cheerful when envisioning Julie Andrews singing "My Favorite Things" to her young charges in The Sound of Music? In fact, this song by the incredibly successful, award-winning (34 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, 2 Pulitzer Prizes, 2 Grammy Awards, and an Emmy Award) musical team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II has become as familiar as any nursery rhyme to many children during the more than 40 years since it was written. And now, with the warm, cozy illustrations by Renée Graef (illustrator of E.T.A. Hoffman's The Nutcracker, adapted by Janet Schulman), children can enjoy the delicious images and lilting notes of the classic song any time. Each illustration is framed with a folksy rustic border, and portrays a happy family in an idyllic rural setting enjoying "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens" and "doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles" all year round. And if the raindrops on roses look ever so faintly like aphids, well, the "bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens" on the following page should more than make up for it. Naturally, the book comes complete with the score of "My Favorite Things," so families can sing or play along to their hearts' content. (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter
