Wild Wild Sunflower Child Anna

Anna's solitary frolic with nature provides a theme for this simple, lively book. One moment she's running among sunflowers, the next climbing a tree to command a ship, then picking berries, rolling down a grassy slope, exploring ants and spiders. Nancy Carlstrom's text does verbal flips and somersaults in fresh word play; she rounds off each page-long vignette with a refrain using Anna's name. Among Pinkney's cheery green and yellows, Anna never so much as smudges her nose, and even the ants and spiders look clean and charming; the child's beatific face and her poses show a child who never stops listening and lookingnot until she falls asleep in the grass. The text contains little regular meter or end rhyme but plenty of playfulness. A bucolic mood prevails. Ages 3-6. (September)