Hajime in the North Woods

Like Shawnee Bill's Enchanted Five-Ride Carrousel (reviewed above), this debut picture book centers on an infant's nighttime trip astride an animal through a forest. Deep in winter, Hajime is born in the North Country. When the snow melts, his mother takes the baby outside. The birds and chipmunks and squirrels chatter, and Hajime not only understands their language but can communicate his responses. One warm night two raccoons come to take him into the North Woods where he meets all the other animals and nearly agrees to Black Bear's plea: ``Stay with us, Hajime. . . . Don't go back to the grown-ups.'' The art is uneven: on the one hand, Wilds's flattened spaces and rich colors suggest an otherworldly atmosphere; on the other, her compositions are stiff and her faces (especially the baby's) are simply peculiar. The text, too, is inconsistent, and the never-neverland theme has been better exploited elsewhere. However, the combination of heavy-hitting images--the nocturnal ride on the backs of gray wolf and raccoon, the notion of the willing abduction--endow this book with moments of unmistakable power. Ages 3-7. (May)