EARTHDANCE

Ryder (My Father's Hands, 1994, etc.) addresses readers in the second person, beckoning them to join in a cosmic appreciation of the earth and all it holds. Simple verse shot through with sensory and physical images invite children to imagine themselves as the globe, twirling through nights, days, summer, and winter. Text and art boldly converge in a series of invocations: ``Wiggle your shoulders and mountains tremble and quake'' and ``Shake your hair and feel windswept grasses tickle your face.'' An innovative book design incorporates the text into Gorbaty's brightly colored paintings, which at first feature one or two images but quickly build into chaotic, celebratory scenes of life on earth. Powerful, pulsing graphics and a valuable, almost incantatory, message. (Picture book. 5-8)