PIP'S MAGIC

A salamander finds magic in an unexpected place when he sets out after a cure for his fear of darkness. Assured by a trio of frogs that Abra the magician can help, Pip follows his trail- -through dark woods, an even darker tunnel, and a long, long night. Finding the old turtle at last, Pip begs for magic to be brave in the dark. ``But you already have magic,'' the sage replies, ``you found it in the woods and in the tunnel and in the night....'' Walsh's dappled, cut-paper collages evoke Leo Lionni's for simplicity and immediacy. Pip's red-orange, blue-speckled body makes an instant visual focus as he clambers over large, egg shaped pebbles, ventures into the serpentine tunnel, is seen in a cutaway view, or climbs a rocky hill lit by a huge golden moon. Less rarified of theme than Walsh's Hop Jump (1993), this imaginative, boldly colored treatment of a common anxiety is her best work yet. (Fiction/Picture book. 2-6)