IF FROGS MADE WEATHER

Using an array of patterned, textured papers, Donohue creates colorfully dappled collage scenes for this child’s rumination on what the weather would be like if different animals controlled it. Bauer’s associations are sometimes rather free: Yes, frogs would have it wet; for robins, it would be perpetual, worm-rich spring; and “If flies made weather, / every day would be hot, hot, hot. / All the food would rot, rot, rot”—but would turtles really prefer to “snap their / doors shut and smile / in the dry dark” while lightning flashed outside? Or geese to see frosty lawns and hear the sky “sigh / with the lonely cry of / ‘Going. Going. Gone’ ”? Dancing off to bed, surrounded by animal toys, the child closes by claiming all weathers for his own. Bauer turns the rhyming on and off like a switch, but she introduces a thought-provoking theme for young poetry readers or listeners to consider. (Picture book/poetry. 5-7)