THE BOY WHO LONGED FOR A LIFT

`` `Who'll offer me a ride?/Who'll carry me far and wide?' '' A lad sets out, hoping for a lift, but after misadventures with a giant trout, a gull, and other creatures, decides that his own two feet are best. Selznick (The Robot King, 1995, etc.) sets this hand-lettered, previously unpublished verse from the late poet above brightly lit, gently rolling pastures, through which move human figures drawn with antique clothing and slightly outsize heads Ö la Richard Egielski. Illustrated front matter interprets the poem as a fairly sunny take on an older child's displacement with the arrival of a baby. It's appropriate, then, that in the end the boy returns home for a final, affectionate ``lift'' from his father. A pleasant journey, with repetitive, not singsong, narration. (Picture book. 5-7)