PLENTY TO WATCH

Taro Yashima's second picture book about his childhood (see The Village Tree-1953) is written with his wife and recreates the heart of Japan. Simply, it is the everyday things children see on their way home from school. There is the sweet shop, the day -maker's house, the rice pounder's, the huge fertilizer mill and the place where they buy bean curd. These and many more- pictured in brilliant hues by an artist who knows his country in essence, make a book of timeless appeal.