THE BROOK

It's unfair—and too easy—to criticize an artist for failing Tennyson, but the fact remains that ALA Notable author/illustrator Micucci (The Life and Times of the Apple, 1992, etc.) doesn't seem even to try to rise to the occasion. Tennyson's brook is a living thing, hurrying down 30 hills, bickering across valleys, stealing by lawns and grassy plots, and making ``netted sunbeam dance against...sandy shallows.'' It is as rambunctious as the ``lusty trout'' it carries. But in this version, Tennyson's brook is so quaint and butterfly-ridden that we can barely even see it, let alone celebrate it. A bawdy and capricious flirt of a river, the one the poet claimed would ``go on forever'' while men came and went, has been tamed by a Hallmark Card hand. (Glossary) (Poetry/Picture book. 4- 7)