Quiet
Kindergarten-Grade 2--A young boy goes into a field and lies down on his back, perfectly still, perfectly quiet, with a pile of seeds and apple cores placed on his chest. He is soon investigated by a succession of curious creatures: a chipmunk, a raven, a mouse, and two chickadees. While awaiting his visitors, the boy watches the clouds and listens to the wind, per haps the same wind that blew in "from the sea where Vikings roamed near Maine and maybe met a bird on an out stretched hand. . ." The book ends with the boy sitting up, a bird perched on his outstretched hand. This is defi nitely a mood piece, calling to mind some of Byrd Baylor's books. Text is minimal and poetic, with a couple of sentences per page. Illustrations are clean, detailed, but spare drawings, with lots of white shaded with soft tur quoise greens, yellow, black, and brown, occasionally punctuated by the vibrant red of the apple cores. Audi ence reaction to the book is likely to be mixed; most may find the concept inter esting but improbable. As such, it may serve to set a tone or as a starter for a discussion or creative-writing experi ence.-Denise L. Moll, Lone Pine Ele mentary School, West Bloomfield, MICopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.