BOOKS FOR KIDS

A POCKETFUL OF POEMS By Nikki Grimes Illustrated by Javaka Steptoe; Clarion: 32 pp., $15 Nikki Grimes boils poetry down to its essence in this picture book homage to words-a must-read for aspiring poets and writers. Narrator and girl-poet Tiana begins with an invitation to join her in wordplay, and the accompanying illustration depicts her, literally, with hands outstretched and bearing what appear to be carved letters in her palms. The poem “Tiana” launches the volume, then the heroine leads readers through the seasons with more than a dozen words, from “Spring” to “Gift” at Christmastime. Each spread introduces the chosen word in a brief poem, then highlights the same word in a haiku. Tiana’s bubbling personality shines forth from each verse, and Javaka Steptoe, in an extraordinary feat, sculpts each of his character portraits from construction paper in a single, uninterrupted linear outline. His glorious mixed-media collages make the transition from intimate interior scenes to electric urban landscapes. A standout spread for “Harlem” depicts a rooftop image of Tiana and her father; the words of the haiku comprise a display of fireworks: “Harlem-July Fourth/ fireworks rainbow the night with/ bursts of dazzling light.” Readers can only hope that this dynamic duo has many more pockets full of poems. (Ages 6 to 10)

ALBERT By Donna Jo Napoli Illustrated by Jim LaMarche; Harcourt/Silver Whistle: 32 pp., $16

Donna Jo Napoli’s first picture book spins a beguiling tale of a recluse forced out of his shell through unlikely circumstances. Sticking his hand through the window grillwork each day to check the weather, Albert invariably decides it’s “too cold,” ’too damp” or “too breezy” to venture out. Instead of going for a walk he “listened to baseball games on the radio and cut pictures out of magazines and wrote postcards he never mailed.” One day when he stretches his hand outside his window, a pair of cardinals build a nest in it. Reluctant to destroy the nest, Albert sleeps standing up and guards the eggs while the parents are foraging. He thus discovers that the world is not so forbidding and decides it’s time to test his own wings. Napoli effortlessly incorporates the twin metaphors of Albert reaching out to the world around him and baby birds learning to fly in flawless prose. Jim LaMarche’s luminescent colored pencil illustrations in turn reflect the tale’s quiet charm. The artist is in complete control of his imagery from start to finish: A literal foreshadowing in the opening scene shows the shadow of the birds perched on grillwork crossbars projected onto the wall, symbolizing both imprisonment and freedom; in the final scene, Albert “flies” on a swing in a city park. The artist captures Albert’s gentle eccentricity in his Edwardian haircut and oddly formal clothing. A magical marriage of art and text. (Ages 5 to 8)

HEAVEN EYES By David Almond; Delacorte: 40 pp., $15.95

Readers spellbound by the intriguing characters and surrealistic flavor of David Almond’s previous works will be eager to dive into the murky waters of this third novel, set in a riverside orphanage. Erin Law, one of the “damaged” orphan children residing at Whitegates, eloquently recounts her earliest happy memories of her mother and the way the woman’s voice and touch have remained with her. One day, Erin sets out on a remarkable adventure-cum-rescue mission, with fellow orphan friends January and Mouse on a homemade raft. (‘Some people will tell you that none of these things happened. They’ll say they were just a dream that the three of us shared.’) Their vessel gets stuck in the mire on the Black Middens, a muddy sinkhole of a place every bit as haunting and surreal as the hideout in “Skellig” or the abandoned mines of “Kit’s Wilderness.” The children discover two strangers who live alongside the Middens in a dilapidated settlement: Heaven Eyes, a ghostlike girl with webbed hands (so named because “her lovely eyes saw through all the trouble in the world to the heaven that lies beneath’), and “Grampa,” her ancient caretaker. Here the children slowly unravel mysteries about the crumbling town, its muddy banks holding many treasures and the tragic history of Heaven Eyes. Possessing a rare understanding of human frailties, impulses, desires and fears, the author boldly explores the gray area between reality and imagination, and the need to construct one’s own legends to survive. His tantalizing settings and poetic narrative have a lingering effect, much like a prophetic dream. (Ages 9 to 12)

TOASTING MARSHMALLOWS Camping Poems By Kristine O’Connell George Illustrated by Kate Kiesler Clarion: 48 pp., $15

Like their previous collaborations, “The Great Frog Race” and “Old Elm Speaks,” this volume by Kristine O’Connell George and Kate Kiesler is as delicious as a toasted marshmallow treat. George’s poems are well-crafted, varied and easily accessible. The topics range from a tent-shaped poem about the careful raising of the family’s canvas lodging to post-trip unpacking, in which a child tucks away a flannel shirt perfumed in scents of pine, wood fire and forest moss in her “bottom drawer-/where no one will find it/ and wash away [her] memories.” Though Kiesler’s human figures are sometimes wooden, she effuses her acrylic landscapes with light filtered through leaves. A few of the illustrations seem much too idyllic and scrubbed (in the “Abandoned Cabin,” its “crumbling fireplace” looks newly constructed; in another, the brother’s “grubby hands” seem freshly washed). Yet George’s poems shine. A “panther cloud crosses the sky’; after a storm, a “confetti of birds dance another rain shower.” A concrete poem in the shape of a waning moon is exquisite: “Tipping/a slender/silver ear,/Moon tries/ to pretend/she isn’t/listening/to our/secrets.” Readers will definitely wants’mores. (Ages 6 to 10)

All reviews are provided to Book Review by Publishers Weekly, where they first appeared. 2001, Publishers Weekly.