The Yellow Umbrella

A gust of didacticism dampens this picture book, the author's first, about a mother and son hurrying to school on a rainy morning. A bright yellow umbrella discarded on the street catches the boy's eye, but his frazzled mother, almost late for work, has little patience for his curiosity about the ``yellow umbrellow,'' much less for his desire to splash through every puddle he passes. In a moment of revelation, however, the waterlogged woman contrasts the smiling children and their multi-hued umbrellas outside the school doors with ``all the unsmiling parents / and all the black umbrellas . . . / and all of them hurrying / and hurrying off to work.'' She concludes that the childlike attitude is best after all; a happy ending shows her, armed with a new yellow umbrella, and her eager child taking a wet but leisurely stroll home. Awash in the diffuse light of a rainy day, the misty, atmospheric pastels are the strong suit here, but even Speidel's art is not up to her usual standard (see Sing to the Stars and My Mama Sings , both reviewed below). The mother's coloring, for example, changes so radically that it can be difficult to recognize her from one spread to the next. Ages 3-6. (Apr.)