STAYING COOL

Boxing is an unusual subject for the picture-book audience. Here, Curtis's ambition to qualify for the Golden Gloves tournament and his desire for his grandfather's approval motivate him to train hard and control his emotions in the ring. The young boy's kindly but demanding grandfather runs a gym in a boarded-up corner grocery store. A promising fighter in his younger days, Grandpa still regrets that he never got a shot at the middleweight title. When Curtis promises to do it for him, his grandfather counters, ""You have to do it for yourself."" ""I'll do it for both of us"" is the boy's reply. An atmospheric story of intergenerational affection, this is set in a very specific urban, African-American milieu, carefully captured in Lewis's watercolors.