WHITE NINETEENS

Another intriguing visual extravaganza from the creator of Drawer in a Drawer (1990). On a lovely summer morning, Buttercup (an elfin creature) can't find her favorite wings—her ``White Nineteens''—one of the many pairs she stores on coat-hangers. Her search leads from Owl and Queen Bee to ``the Opposite Side of the Forest,'' where a menacing orange cat takes her through the snow to a troll who does indeed have the wings. Escaping, Buttercup leaves the pink wings she was wearing, retrieves her White Nineteens from the sleeping troll, and flies back to summer. On the surface, this is more accessible than Drawer in a Drawer, but the resonances—especially in the allusive, surreal illustrations—are even more complex and enigmatic. Meanwhile, in its textures, details, and compositions, the extraordinary art burgeons with delights: an enormous monocled owl with odd bits of twigs and ribbons caught in his meticulously rendered feathers; the bizarre assortment of intertwined objects that frame the title; the brooding derelict car where the Troll makes his home. Exquisitely designed and executed; wonderfully strange. (Picture book. 5+)