WHO CAME DOWN THAT ROAD?

A mother and child look at a path near their home, ``Just a trace through the woods'' but one that's long been traveled. Answering the child's questions, the mother tells how her great- grandparents used the road, then moves back to Civil War soldiers, earlier settlers, ``Shawnee and Cherokee,'' buffalo, mammoths, a warm sea, and finally ``Questions! Questions crowded like a bed of stars...the mystery of the making place....'' As he did for Lyon's Cecil's Story (1991), Catalanotto provides cinematic, out-of-focus illustrations, shimmering with light shining through leaves toward the observer, occasionally superimposing images for a dreamlike effect; the film technique extends to placing the title page several spreads into the story, so that the title becomes part of the text. A lovely, beautifully crafted book that makes an unusually effective response to a prototypical question. (Picture book. 4-7)