SUMMER IS ...

First published in 1967, Zolotow's spare evocation of the seasons—"Summer is whirring lawn mowers. . . Fall is squirrels on the rooftops. . . Winter is lamps lit early. . . Spring is worms in the damp earth"—has now been provided with lyrical, generalized illustrations, blue-toned and subdued, that hardly vary in mood from season to season. Throughout, too, we see a mother (or grandmother?) and a small boy—in a typically pastoral, children's-book setting—but they have no individuality, or even reality, as persons. The text is observant; the illustrations are sweet-dream-y and muzzy.