PRAIRIE PRIMER A TO Z

Stutson's rhyming alphabet book works its way over the prairie landscape. The time is early this century; the setting is a homesteader's handsome manse. These are drowsy days, the chores none too taxing, every neighbor and creature an amiable soul. ``I two Irons growing hot/breakfast porridge in the pot/When bowls are cleared away . . ./J a game of Jacks we play.'' Some will say that Stutson (By the Light of the Halloween Moon, 1993) has stripped the homesteader's life of its drama and heroism—a denaturalization process attended by Lamb's misty, sentimental illustrations. Story, setting, and characters are highly romanticized, and this paean is nothing if not harmonious: ``H the House that calls us in/`Coming! Coming!' we all sing,/on the porch for one last swing.'' It's extremely old-fashioned in sensibility and may not find an audience among the rough-and-ready preschool set. (Picture book. 3-7)