Pezzettino

In this charming tale of Pezzettino who is so much smaller than the others that he thinks he must be a little piece of someone else, Lionni combines a common theme with a very personal treatment and, in his pictures, mixes the marbelized rocks that have become his trademark with visually abstract characters reminiscent of Little Blue and Little Yellow. One-who-runs, strong-one, one-on-the-mountain, and flying-one are all made up of colored cut paper squares vaguely suggestive of bird and animal forms, and after each of them tells Pezzettino, who consists Of just one orange square, that he can't be their little piece for none of them has a piece missing, wise-one sends him across a brilliant sea to the rocky Island of Wham, where Pezzettino falls, breaks into little pieces, and, then--back together--exults that ""I am myself!"" A loving, lightly tendered affirmation--and, incidentally, an ideal storyboard for young film animators. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.