Ring of Earth: A Child's Book of Seasons

Award-winning author Yolen offers a beautiful book of poetry that sings old songs in new ways. The challenging language, rich in metaphor and rhythm, is matched perfectly by Wallner's stunning drawings, showing the dragonfly with its ""veins like stained glass ribbings trapping all the sun's light,'' and the geese flying ``but wingtips apart, no compass, no compass but the heart.'' The seasons are represented by four poems, each narrated by a different animal, and both text and art emphasize the cyclic nature of all living things on ``This ring of earth, this world, this sphere, enclosed within the circled year.'' It is difficult to say which is more satisfyingWallner's complicated designs, in which the earth and its animals are wreathed together, or Yolen's wonderful text that reminds us ``the Power of the World always works in circles.''(All ages)