What Rhymes with Moon

As with Owl Moon , Yolen will dazzle readers with these 19 poems about the moon. Councell, ( Handel and the Famous Sword Swallower of Halle ), meanwhile, contributing a palette of muted blues, purples, and grays, proves an effective counterpart. Both author and artist move easily from a spoof of British Mother Goose to a poignant poem about the ``Old Woman Who Never Dies,'' the Sioux name for the moon. Easily accessible to children, Yolen's images startle and tease. The moon is ``a sickle for pruning the stars,'' a ``coin hung in the sky'' or a place to house ``everything that got broke on earth.'' By turns wise, clever, entertaining, and thoughtful, these well-crafted poems are powered by their concentrated simplicity, and, like the moon itself, hint of revelation in ordinary things. Ages 3-up. (Oct.)