One More Time, Mama

""Tell me some more about waiting, Mama. Tell me again,"" comes the recurring plea from the young protagonist of Alexander's (Nadia the Willful) labored story. A mother recounts, at her daughter's urgings, the months of waiting for her baby's birth, focusing on the changes in the seasons (e.g., ""I was waiting when the new-hatched goslings and ducklings waddled down the path and around the pond and the wild violets began to bloom on the rise beyond""). Readers may have less patience than this child who eagerly listens to Mama's soporific descriptions of weather and animal activity from winter through autumn, when her infant is finally born. Soman's (When I Am Old with You) softly focused, sometimes hazy watercolors faithfully document the seasonal changes and capture the affection between mother and child, but youngsters are more likely to crave details about the impending newborn than the environmental sounds and sights the expectant mother witnesses. Ages 3-5. (Sept.)