“Balancing Act” by Ellen Stoll Walsh

“Balancing Act”

By Ellen Stoll Walsh

Beach Lane, $16.99, ages 2-4

Ellen Stoll Walsh’s two mice, simply and amply plump, are happy playing together on “a teeter-totter,” one on each end. More friends arrive. And the equation of equilibrium becomes complicated by a variety of bodies, salamanders, frogs and a bird bigger than any one else. A text of just the right size shows that Walsh understands the pace of quick changes on the playground, friends running together, friends running apart. Friendship is always a “balancing act.”