MATTHEW'S MEADOW

After his farm chores are done, Matthew finds a quiet retreat in the upland meadow his grandmother had cleared. There, a red-tailed hawk speaks to him, promising to teach him important lessons if he will but come to the meadow at a certain time each year. As Matthew grows into adolescence, the hawk teaches him how to listen as well as hear, how to feel as well as touch, and how to open all his senses, urging him to ``think beyond your thoughts.'' Though Matthew will forget the hawk, he remembers the teaching and becomes a peaceable farmer who one day brings his baby daughter to the meadow. Lewin is one of the few illustrators who can paint a human face that is utterly realistic; here, his large, luminous watercolors capture a very average-looking boy's inner growth, as well as the story's lyricism and magical undertones. For thoughtful readers. (Fiction. 8-12)