KASHTANKA

The heroine of Chekhov's short story is a dog who gets lost and is adopted by a clown. The clown gives her a new name and trains her, but during her first circus performance, Kashtanka hears her old name called, sees her former owner in the balcony, and runs back to her old life. Spirin (Snow White & Rose Red, 1992) exquisitely illustrates these scenes, and readers will easily spend as much time on the pictures as on the words. Highly imaginative compositions are vividly detailed down to the last wood shaving of a cabinetmaker's shop, and exhibit a kind of stylized realism. The position of every object and every posture matters, yet the illustrations are showy not at the expense of the story, but by echoing the text in all respects. They amplify and enlarge the tale: It's not a book, it's a performance. (Picture book. 8+)