Swinging on a Rainbow

An African American child puts her imagination to work by asking herself, ``How would it feel to swing on a rainbow?'' Ironically, it is imagination that Perkins's verse lacks. Forced and simplistic, the rhyming text falls flat from its opening lines: ``This is a story about pretty little Patrice / Who one day thought it would be so very neat / To go out and play and sing on her swing / For Patrice loved swinging more than anything.'' The girl tries in vain to share her excitement with her friends, but they abandon her as rain begins to fall. Suddenly the forlorn Patrice spies a rainbow in her own backyard (``Over her swing was the world's prettiest rainbow / Each color so bright with a marvelous glow. / And so it was a rainbow brand new / Patrice was so happy her wish had come true''). Though boldly hued, Hamilton's full-page, occasionally stiff and always busy illustrations are as ungainly as Perkins's verse. Ages 5-8. (June)