BY THE DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT

Rachel introduces her family—Mom, Nana, and younger brother Josh—and describes life with a mother who works a ``graveyard shift,'' detailing her workday at a factory and the concurrent events at home from dinner and bedtime to ``the dawn's early light''—a special time the children sometimes share with Mom by getting up at 4 a.m. when she gets home. The straightforward prose comes alive in Stock's depiction of a family of color (possibly Hispanic) living with their cat in a modest but comfortable home. Her watercolors glow with love and warmth; the text makes it clear that the children wish their mother worked daytime hours like other parents. A useful, realistic portrayal. Also available in Spanish (ISBN: 0-689-31917-7). (Picture book. 4-8)