THE WOMAN WHO FELL FROM THE SKY

From a distinguished editor and translator of Native American lore (most recently, Lightning Inside You, 1992), a simple but dramatically retold creation myth. Pushed by her jealous husband, a sky woman falls from the heavens to the watery void below, where she creates the earth, sun, and stars. When her two children, Sapling and Flint, are born, they create, respectively, the world's gentle and fearsome things, then rise into the heavens trailing the bifurcated Milky Way, ``showing that there are two minds in the universe''—benevolent and harsh. Parker's gouache paintings employ a remarkable range of tones from watery pastels to deep, intense shades; his frontispiece, a closeup of the flowering tree that illuminates the heavens, is dazzling. Most satisfying to look at, to read aloud, or to hear. (Folklore/Picture book. 5+)