WATER'S WAY

Parallel narratives follow water's path in nature (mist rising to clouds to rain to puddles) and, in smaller inset illustrations, indoors (soup-pot steam condenses on and runs down a window). A second, less clear sequence compares the smell of bathtub soap to the smell of the sea, but the neatly rounded conclusion—frost on the window, snow outside, the child observer finally going out to play—is satisfying. Rand's attractive watercolors are a fine complement to the ideas suggested in the text. An excellent concept book. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4-8)