HAYSTACK

A timely appreciation of the lowly haystack that, standing ``high, long and wide on the prairie'' once provided months of low- cost food and shelter for livestock on the farm. An economical narrative, running only a line of two of text per page, links the illustrator's instantly recognizable colored etchings. He brings viewers close to watch the barn-sized stack's construction, then pulls them back to observe the cattle clustering around it through warm and cold seasons. Its sides become concave, tunnels form and, at last, the pigs are herded in to finish it off. None of the haystackor, more precisely, all of itgoes to waste; the collapsed remnants, mostly manure, are spread over the field to fertilize the new crop. Big landscapes with tiny, precise details, plus the pigs that are a Geisert trademark will entice readers to linger over this eye-opener and to think about a rural staple usually only glimpsed from the window of a passing car. (Picture book. 4-8)