FROM APPLE SEED TO APPLESAUCE

Like Selsam and Wexler (The Apple and Other Fruits, 1973), Johnson and Dorn take a close-up look at the processes of pollination, ripening, grafting, and budding, but this is also a wide-angle view of the apple industry. As such it is informative at its level and immediately attractive, but a little too much like an industry effort. There are come-on photos of the five ""most popular"" apples--red and golden delicious, Rome beauty, McIntosh, and Jonathan; a posed tableau of smiling blond children picking apples; and a patient explanation of the benefits of spraying with pesticides. (Needless to say, there is no mention of the wax applied for shinier skins, or even of the decreasing number of varieties commercially available. Instead, ""Man and nature worked together to develop a perfect fruit for you to enjoy."") Johnson ends with a bland, skeletal recipe for homemade applesauce and Dom with six applesauce-eating preschoolers squeezed int a corner so they'll all be facing the camera. As with the growers, the chief consideration is a good appearance.