A PLACE TO BLOOM
By
A colorful, visually appealing story-in-rhyme with an ambiguous focus: Is it about sharing the planet with other species (""The stream I like to visit/is someone's place to drink""), seeing the same thing from different perspectives (""The feather that is light for me/others cannot lift""), or recycling (""The teddy bear that showed much wear/that no one thought to mend/was thrown away the very same day/he became my very best friend!"")? Siomades's wonderfully engaging mixed-media illustrations are indebted to Eric Carle, but her writing doesn't measure up to the same high standard, e.g., there's a grammatical lapse in ""the grass I love to lay in,"" awkward meter, and forced rhyme--""The scary snake on the garden path/who doesn't look friendly. . . /is someone else's mother/who is more afraid of me!