RETURN OF THE SHADOWS
by Norma Farber & illustrated by Andrea Baruffi
The fine poet and picture-book author (d. 1984) left this intriguing tale of shadows abandoning their owners to experiment with incongruities: camel with iceberg, skyscraper with jungle tree, bike with plane. At noon, they ``disappear[ed] entirely...without anything familiar to hide under''; lengthening, they grow bolder, but night—the ``terrible time in the no place of shadows''—sends them back to their true owners. Farber's wonderfully fresh language is echoed in Baruffi's spare, clean art—a perfect setting for these arrant wayfarers, whether boldly black or elusively dim. A delightfully imaginative variant on the theme of ``Home Sweet Home.'' (Picture book. 4-8)