An author whose powerful portrayals of families are often entwined with love for a home place weaves these familiar strands into a lyrical celebration of bonding with both. Beginning when his grandmother wraps him, at birth, ``in a blanket made from the wool of her sheep,'' Eli describes his grandparents' and parents' joy in him and his in their farm, where all their names are carved on a barn rafter. As Eli grows, he explores the countryside; the book ends as he plans to share favorite places with a new baby sister. The quiet narrative is so intensely felt that it commands attention. Wimmer, who illustrated Burleigh's Flight (1991), depicts the traditional farm in a romantically realistic style, catching the exhilaration of belonging in an idyllic landscape or the exquisitely observed details of a particular turtle, or of a well-loved face, with equal skill. A book that courts sentimentality, but is so well crafted and essentially honest that it escapes it. (Picture book. 4-8)
