THE MAGIC FAN

Yoshi loves to build, but eventually runs out of ideas for new projects. The sea brings him a fan that, when opened, pictures a boat, then a kite, then a bridge. He frees boat and kite, but his fellow townspeople dislike the arching bridge's shadow--until the bridge's trembling warns Yoshi of an imminent earthquake, The tidal wave that follows takes the fan, but leaves Yoshi with confidence in his own imagination. Baker's rich, flat acrylic paintings are attractive; their fan shape adds interest, although Baker only occasionally incorporates the radiating folds in his designs. The use of fan-shaped-cut pages adds little, since the turn merely serves to display a new illustration with the same text. As in Baker's The Dove's Letter (1988), the unexceptional story here serves chiefly as a foil for the illustrations.