SKY DRAGON

Spotting animal figures in clouds is not an original picture-book notion, but Wegen gives it some style and starch. At the opening the atmosphere is crisp and clear. Two bundled-up older children, seen from behind, comment on the cloud pictures, while a smaller one, facing toward us and away from the clouds, complains of the cold. From the start the pages are mostly sky, and by the rime we've worked our way to the center of the book they are almost all sky; the children's figures have diminished in size and moved off center, so that readers focus with them on the darkening sky and the changing cloud shapes: a dim car and mouse, followed by a dog, then a trio of elephants, and finally, as the sky grows turbulent, a still darker, looming monster shape. The children go home (""I want hot chocolate,"" says the youngest); and we see them later, looking out from their safe yellow house at a crisp but ominous snowy night. Then, next day, with a clear sky and ground fuzzy white, they build the same long twisting dragon shape out of snow. It's more showcase than story, but Wegen makes it an experience too.