COUNTING ON THE WOODS

A book organized around a counting theme features crisp, close-up photography—in colors so vivid, they hardly seem real- -to celebrate the beauty of a forest in Kentucky. Creating more of a rhythmic text than the poem suggested by the subtitle, Lyon (Ada's Pal, 1996, etc.) offers thoughtful notions as well as more ordinary ones: ``Two birds, daybreak's words'' fares better than ``Six tracks./Who's coming back?'' Olson identifies not only her subjects but the locales, as a child walking alone in the woods sees what the photographs document. There are unusual beetles, a close-up of worms, hidden nests, and wildflowers captured or arranged in clear, visible compositions. Neither a true counting book, nor a strictly informational book, nor a story, this succeeds in all its riveting detail as a tribute to a place that both author and photographer hold dear. (Picture book. 3-6)