ALEJANDRO'S GIFT

In his first children's book, an 84-year-old depicts a homely desert sage: white-bearded Alejandro, who welcomes visitors who stop for water from his well. Human callers are few at this remote spot among the Southwest's cactus, but a variety of little animals enjoy the water irrigating his small garden. Hoping to attract larger species, the old man creates a water hole. As he soon realizes, it's too close to his house and to the road; but once he's made another, in a sheltered spot, he can hear all the desert animals enjoying it. Long fills generous full-bleed spreads with evocative, meticulously detailed pen-and- watercolor illustrations of a desert landscape well populated with the wildlife listed in the text. If matching these is a challenge, 26 species are sorted out in an appendix. A likable, beautifully presented picture of a human being responding to his natural surroundings with sensitivity and imagination. (Picture book. 4-8)