I WANT TO BE

The untrammeled exuberance of a free-spirited youngster, eager to explore everything, sings through a poetic story.

When neighbors ask a young African-American what she'd like to be and she lacks a ready answer, she lets her imagination soar while pondering attributes she might claim ("big," "strong," "old," "fast," "wise," "beautiful," "green," "weightless") and concluding: "I want to be life doing, doing everything." The unnamed narrator, in sneakers, tie-dyed shirt and cutoff overalls, is Pinkney's latest handsome young heroine (cf. Mirandy and Brother Wind, 1988; The Talking Eggs, 1989). His watercolors burgeon with flowers, butterflies, rainbows, and busy, happy people (Brother Wind makes a cameo appearance). In Moss's headlong style, image piles on image; but Pinkney's artistic ingenuity matches even her most over-the-top similes: "a train moving in the sun like a metal peacock's glowing feather on tracks that are like stilts a thousand miles long laid down like a ladder up a flat mountain (wow!)...."

Exhilarating, verbally and visually: the very essence of youthful energy and summertime freedom.