Where the Forest Meets the Sea

A boy travels with his father to a tropical rain forest. Walking among the trees and vines, he imagines the forest as it might have been in the past, with now-extinct creatures and aboriginal children inhabiting it. How much longer, the boy wonders, will the forest remain? Baker's portrayal of unspoiled nature is both an eloquent plea for conservation and a visual tour de force. Her collage constructions have the life and intensity of photographs; at the same time, they embody the inscrutable magic and spirit of a primeval forest. Dinosaurs emerge, barely perceptible, from a tangle of trunks and vines; the faint outlines of an aboriginal child melt into a background of trees; and, in the final, haunting scene, the unspoiled vista readers have toured is overlaid with translucent images of civilization's worst trappings. An exquisitely wrought work with a simple, profound message. All ages. (April)