REUNION

While Jon's grandmother naps, she leaves him to look at an old photo album entitled Paul's Fantastic Photos—1915. Bored, Jon finds the pictures ``gloomy''; even after he hears Paul's voice calling from a framed photo of him, climbs into it, and joins the boy in the earlier time, Jon sees everything there as gray. Paul, however, knows that ``Pictures can come to life,'' though ``it takes a little practice.'' The two visit several more scenes from the album before Jon, now convinced, makes a dive that lands him back in the full-color, but no more lively, present. A quiet story, but one that many young readers will find intriguing. Essley's appealingly nostalgic illustrations are distinguished by delicate modeling and carefully balanced composition. A creative introduction to time travel—and to the way that ordinary-seeming remnants of the past can become windows into a once-vibrant time. (Picture book/Young reader. 5-9)