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Katie's older sister Marcia advises Katie to replace the Band-Aid box she keeps her money in and get a purse, but after Katie buys a purse she has no money left to put in it

Caple, who brought young readers The Biggest Nose, now introduces Katie. Katie loves the noise her Band-Aid box full of coins makes when she rattles it. But when her older sister Marcia insists that big girls have purses, Katie uses her money to buy one. She finds, however, that an empty purse is less satisfying than a Band-Aid box full of coins; she spends the rest of this story ingeniously resolving her problem. The Purse has a number of homely virtues. It introduces the uses and value of money in a gently instructive fashion. And it presents an average family in a warm domestic atmosphere. As she gardens with her mama and shops for groceries with her papa, Katie is reaping the rewards of being part of a caring family. The text is simple; the expressions on Katie's face document her earnest pursuit of a solution, from worried knit eyebrows to that last wide smile. (4-8) Copyright 1986 Cahners Business Information.

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PreS-Gr 1 Caple's homey watercolor illustrations are the strength of The Purse . As with her earlier The Biggest Nose (Houghton, 1985) , she uses minimal features to capture completely the varying moods of her characters, especially those of her willful protagonist. Katie's older sister Marcia convinces her that keeping her money in a Band-Aid box is babyish and that she ought to have a grown-up purse. Katie spends all her money to buy a purse, only to face the frustration of having nothing left to put in it. By doing chores for her mother, father, and sister, she manages to have both her new grown-up look and the comforting ``clinkity-clinkity-clinkity'' noises of her Band-Aid box. Caple's story is predictable, and the action is minimal. However, Katie's determined nature as she works to get just what she wants gives the tale a strength of character that will appeal to young children. Although not a ``must'' purchase, The Purse follows in the footsteps of Udry's What Mary Jo Shared (Whitman, 1966) as a pleasant introduction to the idea of creative problem-solving. Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, The Wheeler School, Providence, R.I. Copyright 1987 Cahners Business Information.