YELLOW BALL

Captioned with the simplest of texts—just an occasional word or a phrase—a warm picture-story about what happens to a favorite toy: a beach ball as round and yellow as children imagine the sun to be. "Catch," "Throw," "Uh-oh"—and, in a sequence of four imaginatively shaped frames, the ball escapes and drifts out to sea, the beach world growing progessively smaller in the distance. Sometimes as tiny as a pinhead but always there for sharp eyes to spot, it's seen passing man-made things and sea creatures, floating on gorgeous blue-green waves and riding out an awesome storm before "Coming ashore" to be found and loved by a new child, perhaps in the Caribbean: "Home." From wild, Turner-like seascape to blissful sleeping child on the last page, Bang's understated paintings are lovely. Like Williams's More, More, More Said the Baby (1990), a book with a quintessentially unpretentious surface and splendid other dimensions, including the circles of the two loving families, of the journey, and of the world itself. A wonderfully satisfying book. (Picture book. 0-7)