JOHN DENVER’S ANCIENT RHYMES

Denver’s gentle lullaby comes to life in Canyon’s gorgeous paintings. It tells of a baby dolphin, which, in much the same way as a human baby, learns of many dolphin ways while it’s still in its mother’s uterus. When it’s born, it leaps about, tasting the air and racing the seagulls. Denver’s hope was that this dolphin baby would teach humans the song of the dolphins and tell them how to share the earth in harmony. Canyon’s work richly paints a portrait of the dolphin’s watery world, with stippled effects that evoke the sun shining through the water and the foam on the crest of a wave. Youngsters will even gain a better understanding of dolphin birth through the illustrations—one shows a baby dolphin curled up with an umbilical cord and another, the actual live birth from a spot just underneath and behind the mother’s dorsal fin. A better-than-usual effort in the trend of song illustration. (CD in hardcover, score) (Picture book. 4-8)