WAKE UP, JEREMIAH

Wake up, Jeremiah! Get out of bed. It's there at the window. Dress, Jeremiah! . . . It's on the stairs. Quick, Jeremiah! . . . out the door. . . . It's in the trees. . . . It is there!"" So much for the rising action, which begins in the dark, has Jeremiah following glimpses of sun, and is climaxed by two wordless double-page spreads of Jeremiah on the crest of a hill, flooded by the sunrise. The second half of the book is a similar exhortation to Jeremiah to run back, "". . . across the grass. . . through the door and up the stairs"" to ""wake [Mama and Papa] to the new day."" To justify this buildup, the pictures would have to be special, and Himler does his best to leave the reader awestruck. But if you don't find his sun-dappled impressionistic paintings as breathtaking as he intends, you'll find that central sunrise a washout and all the rhapsodic effects manipulative if not sickly.