WOODLAND CROSSINGS

Five wispy pseudo-fables, about small living things (plants as well as animals) ironically unaware of their own destinies. A self-satisfied blackbird chatters on while the worm he's conversing with gives him the slip; a huge flower, proclaimed king by the others, overshadows his obedient subjects and is in turn squeezed out by the weeds that replace them; a caterpillar refuses to believe in its future as a butterfly; a weasel longs to be something more majestic; and a leaf blown from a tree at last accepts its place in nature. Though told with some grace, the stories are clearly designed to illustrate their central points, and the points are just not sharp or telling enough to hold them up.