CARIBBEAN DREAM

Isadora (The Little Mermaid, p. 582, etc.) celebrates both a place and childhood; her book evokes the land and seascape of Caribbean island life, and the elemental experiences that plot a child's references. On the book's righthand pages are Isadora's nimble sun-bleached watercolors_sea, hills, market, friends, rain, song_while the lefthand pages hold six words that report a feeling or activity: "Where wind meets hill, we run," "Where song meets soul, we dance," and "Where moonlight meets path, we walk." Life on the island is touched by natural magic, where real places fuse with dreamscape, and a water world is made secure by friends, family, and the rhythm of daily acts. There is no point in quibbling that Isadora presents only half the picture_an idyllic half_since that is her point: to wring from this environment all the beauty it holds. (Picture book. 3-8)