Night Owls

Readers who worry that they will ``miss something wonderful if they go to bed too early'' will enjoy Denslow's quiet portrayal of William's visit to his Aunt Charlene's farm. The two night owls share ``a night picnic'' with a nosy retriever named Emmett, they ``blow soap bubbles decorating the night,'' and when William returns home, Charlene writes him letters: ``Oh, William,'' she writes, ``I can hear the first spring peeper at the edge of the berry thicket where we picked raspberries!'' The lack of dramatic tension may deter some readers, but Kastner's luminous, scumbled illustrations lend mystery to the understated text. The owl outside Charlene's snow-spattered window, the still deer backlighted by a fiery sunset and the silhouetted figures of Charlene and William running by the light of the moon are indeed ``something wonderful.'' Ages 4-7. (Mar.)