WHO’S AWAKE IN SPRINGTIME?

“Down, down goes the sun, / And down in the sea, / Fish find a safe place to hide. // Who’s asleep? / ‘Not I,’ says the minnow.” Habitat by habitat, a child dressed in a lamb costume investigates the possible sleepers: ducks in the pond, turtles near the pond, bees in the garden, birds in the trees and so on. Gershator and Green provide a sweetly rhythmic cumulative survey of the fauna; Chollat supplies bright, flat acrylic-and-collage illustrations to depict the fun, but she sacrifices recognizable realism to the detriment of the whole. The duckling looks like an adult duck; the baby jay looks like a yellow cartoon chick (as do all the presumably adult jays). The reason for this can be seen in the child’s bedroom accessories, but that last spread comes too late to satisfy quibblers. (Picture book. 2-5)