GOING BACK HOME

Igus (Two Mrs. Gibsons, p. 448) creates a warm first-person narration for Wood's art, reading as much like an exhibition program with interpretive notes as it does a history of the artist's family in the South. Although the chronicle is highly personal, it evokes universal echoes; the histories of many turn-of-the-century sharecroppers follow the same path. The bold, symbol-laden paintings grew from stories heard by the artist, as well as her journey south to gain a sense of the place her ancestors left a half-century earlier. The text interprets the images in light of the stories; the result is a visually vibrant, factual book that's sure to appeal to children of diverse ethnicities. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-10)