The Man Who Lit the Stars

A French import, Clement's is a majestically illustrated, somewhat spare tale about a nameless wanderer in a nameless land whose job it is to illuminate the heavens. He roams the lonely, windy countryside carrying a ladder. When he passes through one particular village, a waiflike child follows him, fascinated. Together, they ascend the long ladder and polish the stars to a gleaming brilliance. But when thoughtless woodcutters hack down the ladder, the outcast man and boy remain in the heavens, their only visible legacy a shooting star. Clement's ( The Painter and the Wild Swans ) language has the gentle, evocative quality of a traditional legend. But her style is perhaps too minimal, her ending almost anemic, and her narration too abstract for the intended age range. The book truly springs to life through Howe's ( Rip Van Winkle ) sweeping paintings: the flowing-haired hero, clad like a Renaissance troubadour, traverses a fog-shrouded landscape, carrying his ladder through golden fields, and climbs heavenward to fill the night sky with glowing light. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)