WHAT COMES IN SPRING?
by Barbara Savadge Horton & illustrated by Ed Young
A gracefully poetic conversation between a mother and daughter links the cycling of the seasons to the child's own birth. In spring come ``leaves on trees and robins [and] The first time I ever saw your daddy.'' ``Where was I?'' ``You weren't born yet.'' ``Mama, what comes next?'' The summer's wedding, the baby beginning ``to grow inside of me'' in autumn, the ``crisp, clean air'' of winter when ``our voices sound loud in the quiet''—all are recalled in loving dialogue, coming at last to the joy of birth in the spring. In Young's glowing impressionistic pastels, the family is Oriental; his palette here is bright yet tender, the point of view sometimes intimately close, like that of a child secure in her parents' welcome. A lovely first book, with a text worthy of its beautiful setting. (Picture book. 3-6)