POEMS OF CHILDHOOD

Greeting card verses and plenty of pastels make this volume by Anglund not much different from her previous books. Simple rhymes sentimentalize seasonal activities: playing in the leaves and sledding. Others describe childhood events: the wind stealing a kite, a child's anger over a broken toy, and a birthday party. In several places the clichÇs wear thin. One verse about friends in ``far-off places'' portrays a line of children in costumes more typical of 1950s notions of a global village than the current trend toward authenticity. Another poem, about going to bed in summertime, does not improve on Robert Lewis Stevenson. The illustrations, too, show little change (other than the addition of an occasional brown face amid the rosy cheeks), with few realistic portrayals of children. The book is strictly for collectors: Most readers need something more than two dots for eyes, for true human expression includes smiles and frowns—or at least noses and mouths. (Picture book. 3-7)