Mud Makes Me Dance in the Spring

The first of a projected series about the four seasons, this slight but cheerful book introduces an eager young narrator excitedly describing a day in spring. The language, however, is coy in places (of a swing: ``I can pump by myself / all the way to the moon. / When my mother / gives me a giant push, / I might even end up on Pluto'') and the story as a whole lacks focus, moving from one abrupt vignette to the next (``It is time for my haircut / and a popsicle after it's done. / Snip--snip--snip / The wind takes my hair. / The popsicle is red. / I share it with my brother''). Magic Marker-bright compositions, cropped like amateur snapshots, show the same dynamism as Agell's work in Dancing Feet (reviewed above). Ages 3-up. (Mar.)