THE CHRISTMAS KNIGHT

Retelling a story found in ``a fifteenth-century manuscript in the Advocates Library in Edinburgh,'' Curry shows her way with words: ``Good Sir Cleges housed the homeless. He fed the foodless. He helped the hapless.'' Eventually, the good knight's feasts for the poor drive him and his family end into poverty. One wintry day, after Sir Cleges humbles himself by admitting he loved the praise gained by his good works, a blessing befalls him—a cherry bough laden with fruit, which he carries to King Uther. Thus he becomes the ``Christmas Knight,'' whose charity is sponsored by royalty. DiSalvo-Ryan's watercolors offer more depth and detail than usual in her work; her evocation of the setting is quite nice, though she flattens the perspective abruptly on one page (some of the merry folk in the foreground are smaller than people in the background). Also, the furniture in this scene is placed differently two pages later. For those who can overlook such idiosyncrasies: a fine first taste of knightly valor. (Picture book. 5-9)