NOT A COPPER PENNY IN ME HOUSE

Quiet, gracefully cadenced descriptions by a Jamaican-born author make a likable complement to Lessac's affectionate evocations of the island scene. Beginning and ending with colorful Christmas festivities, the 15-poem cycle touches frequently on the realities of poverty (``Roadside Peddlers''; a poignant portrayal of a storekeeper who ``never says no,'' even when Grandma sighs, ``Chil', me stone broke...Not a copper penny in me house''). Pleasures are simple, and telling—watching laundry bleach in the sun; using ``velvet leaves'' when soap is scarce; shining shoes with hibiscus blossoms. In other scenes, a teacher moves a lesson outdoors on a hot June day and Grandpa enjoys conversing with God while he rests on Sunday. As always, Lessac's colors are jewel-bright, her compositions clean and decorative; she imbues her stylized figures with unusual warmth and sympathy. An appealing tribute. (Poetry/Picture book. 4-10)