A CROW'S JOURNEY

The creator of the exquisite Nightfall, Country Lake (1995) has produced another poetic set of observations of the natural world. Spare, rhyming text describes a watershed, from snow melting on a mountain to the confluence of river and ocean. A curious crow flaps from one habitat to the next, following the water as it changes from trickle to river on its long journey from evergreen forest through farm and meadowlands to the sea. Meanwhile, the seasons progress from early spring to full summer. In the rhythmical illustration sequence, small pictures alternate with large ones, and readers soon learn to search for the crow in the latter. Strongly composed gouache scenes in a palette mostly limited to grays, browns, blues, and greens have a painterly subject as well as a literal one—what does light on water look like? The amount of wind and sun, the depth and speed of the water, even its sounds are somehow suggested by streaks and stipples of chiaroscuro; readers wouldn't be surprised if the misty rainbow at the foot of a mountain waterfall drifted across their laps. Wonderful for its own sake, Cunningham's work will also enrich a study of the water cycle. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4+)