UNTIL I SAW THE SEA

A themed anthology—somehow there haven't been many on this subject for children—of 19 poems, some anonymous or traditional, most by such familiar names as Robert Louis Stevenson, e.e. cummings, Myra Cohn Livingston, and David McCord. The selections are nicely arranged, beginning with poems of arrival (Joanna Cole's ``Driving to the Beach'') and discovery (the title poem by Lilian Moore) and moving imperceptibly into more somber works that hint at the ocean's implacable power as well as its romance (Russell Hoban's ``Old Man Ocean,'' John Masefield's ``Sea Fever'') as morning and afternoon scenes give way to dusk. Shaw's full-color photographs of children, shells, waves, and boats, as brilliant as spinnakers, perfectly complement the moods and themes of the poems. The design is clean, bold, and handsome, with binding, spine, and endpapers in primary colors and a scallop shell embossed on the front cover. Well-chosen content; top-notch visuals. (Picture book/poetry. 5-9)