THE PATCHWORK FARMER

Brown's first picture book: a wordless story showing a farmer repeatedly tearing his overalls (on nails, barbed wire, and so on as he goes about his work), then mending them with bits from his capacious patch basket--till the basket is empty and the overalls closely resemble the layout of his own fields. Brown's style is unusually attractive: a Sis-like use of black points combined with beautifully flowing color. Some of the farmer's mishaps are not quite clear (what is he doing with those impossibly short posts?), but the final juxtaposition of pants and panorama is charming. An intriguing debut.