THE GREAT CHANGE

Mourning the death of her grandfather, Wanba and her Grandma catch fish, returning what they don't need to the sea; pause on their return home to fertilize their corn with fish heads; and converse gently about the ""Circle of Life."" Illustrated in lovely impressionistic watercolors rendered in soft colors in a spare yet evocative style, the narrative is not so much a story as a fictional setting for the Native American philosophy of care for the natural world and the continuity of life, symbolized here by several of the creatures the two characters observe (a fishing pelican; a caterpillar) as well as by Grandma passing on her own knowledge to Wanba. The author has taught in American Indian Movement schools; both he and the illustrator are Native Americans.