THE RIVER

Just enough this side of vaporous to be effective as information is this evocation of the lengthening life of a river from a trickle to its jointure with the ocean. As in Mr. Ross' earlier tribute to a pine tree, the text is a prose poem, the illustrations pen drawings with a spare precision and strength suggestive of Japanese brushwork. What makes this more than a handsome mood piece for adult delectation is the drama of the detail--repeatedly the stream is stopped (by drought, by sink holes), each time it gathers strength (from a torrential rain, from an adjoining brook or an underground spring) and pushes forward; before the river reaches the ocean (and dispersion, evaporation), the reader is cheering it one. A satisfying book that could be read aloud, and should (maybe must) be introduced.