The Crown on Your Head

Tillman (On the Night You Were Born) continues her project of nurturing children's self-esteem, creating a cascade of dreamlike spreads to accompany verses assuring them that "[t]he world is a wonderland waiting for you." Her familiar brand of atmospheric, digitally created images show children who wear crowns "made up of sparkling, glimmering things/ like moonlight and fireflies, and dragonfly wings." These children are not the only ones who wear a crown; every child has one, Tillman explains: "No one's is brighter, no one's is duller./ It's only a crown of a different color." Tillman's montages begin with an infant and toddlers, before showing older children perching in a tree house, riding a cheetah, leaping with gazelles, and wearing a cape made of butterflies that come to life and flitter away. There's something magical about the idea of intimacy with wild animals; spreads in which Tillman imagines such interactions, like the cover image of the child asleep astride a zebra, have special power, especially as they're rendered with photograph-like verisimilitude. Tillman's affirmations will please her loyal audience: "Blink three times and... there you are!/ You are twinkling, little star!" Ages 4-8. (Sept.)