WHEN THE SUN ROSE

Another luminous picture book, a fantasy on the phrase used as title, from the creator of Grandfather Twilight and The Donkey's Dream. With the sun, its rays shown as a golden, multi-petaled rose, arrives the narrator's friend, a goldenhaired, rose-covered girl in a rose-shaped carriage pulled by a gentle lion. The two girls spend the day in a playhouse; their dolls exchange dresses, they sup on tea and honeycake, they paint rainbows. At sunset, the friend departs, leaving a rainbow on the wall and the house full of roses. Less intricate in its symbolism than the earlier books and almost too sweet, this book is worthy of attention for its serenely bright, well-designed paintings, celebrating friendship and sunlight. And children will love the soft lion, shining like the sun.