RABBIT SEEDS

In delicate, daintily composed if bland outline drawings: a tender little nothing chronicling a rabbit gardener's year. The only reason to take note is that the actual work of gardening--""He plans where to sow each new crop, draws a tight string to guide his furrows and the tiny seeds""--is meticulously laid out. A child who responds to this sort of procedural detail--including the rabbit's patient waiting and watching ""for a first ripple or crack in the ground""--will find the very lists of plants and precisionist delineations satisfying. The book ends, a bit too placidly perhaps, with the gardener, having harvested and sold his vegetables, putting away his tools. ""His work is done. The sun and leaves will protect his garden all winter."" There are no excitements, no ups-and-downs--but the calm attentiveness that Le Tord's voice and style convey has its value too.