THE BIRTHDAY DOOR

A small girl deciphers a series of rhymed clues leading to her birthday gift of a dollhouse and a cake already lit with candles. Using bright yet misty colors with little linear definition, Thornton depicts an idyllic country morning with a sunrise that fails to progress (in fact, the sun last appears lower than shown earlier). Helen follows simple clues (""Find the door that hides a light,/where it's cold all day and night.""--refrigerator) from door to door, ten in all from birdhouse to attic. All rather tame, then, and a disappointment from poet Merriam, who has often shown that she can write livelier verse than this. Beginning readers might enjoy answering the easy riddles.