Here Is the Arctic Winter

This unusual cumulative book begins with a stark, black-edged painting of the vast, moonlit, arctic landscape: ``Here is the sky / that is dark day and night, / where the sun does not rise / in this cold world of white: / Here is the Arctic winter.'' Each turn of the page highlights another arctic creature, generally named in the order it appears on the food chain--the wolves ``who howl at the sky,'' the caribou ``that flee from the wolves,'' and so on. A useful back page contains outlines of each animal and the address of the National Audubon Society's Arctic Program. Robinson's picture book debut impresses at the outset, with a striking jacket illustration of a lone polar bear stalking across a midnight-dark snowscape--inside are even more breathtaking scenes populated with dazzling animals. Dunphy's opening lines contain a lyrical simplicity and elegance that is unfortunately not consistently maintained. The format seems to constrain the text in ways that sometimes make the relationships between animals seem spurious or confusing and the language unwieldly or awkward. Caveats aside, this luminous and reverent work is a welcome addition to the growing ranks of environmental books. Ages 3-8. (Apr.)