THE FIRST THING MY MAMA TOLD ME

Swanson (Letter to the Lake) and Davenier (the Iris and Walter books) make much of a modest premise in this affectionate and inviting tale, in which a seven-year-old remembers the ways her family has celebrated her name. "Lucy," she tells us, was the first word her mother said to her. Her uncle painted her name on a stepstool. Her father made her pancakes in the shapes of the letters: "My name tasted wonderful," she remembers. In Davenier's (the Iris and Walter books) kinetic mixed-media drawing, Lucy stands over the table, looking on with fascination as her father eases a pancake "L" onto her plate. On the opposite page, she sits with her arms around her middle, jam smeared all over her cheeks, eyes closed, with a contented smile on her lips. On her seventh birthday, her family (now including a younger sister) celebrates with a birthday cake out on the porch, and Lucy's mother gives her a flashlight. In a final exuberant spread, Lucy uses the beam of light to write her name across the night sky. Davenier delights in the smears and scribbles Lucy and her sister leave behind. Calligraphic strokes across mirrors, shirts, playgrounds, etc., become signatures of the girls' discovery of the world around them. Like the lived-in look of the art, Swanson's simple, expressive language is just right for the story of a girl whose family adores her, and who grows securely within that love. Ages 3-7. (May)