Once again, Laroche (Bridges Are to Cross) uses minutely detailed cut-paper and paint to create three-dimensional pictures with remarkable depth—and height, too, since his theme is lighthouses. Fearrington's (Christmas Lights) refrain gives the book its narrative structure: "Blink—flash, flash./ Swirl around, twirl around./ Who sees the light?" The answer—one sailor, two pilots, three gulls, etc.—builds with each successive spread. The theme affords Laroche the opportunity to portray a panoply of American beacons from different vantage points, each one casting its light across the sea and sky (information about all 11 lighthouses pictured appears on the final page). Readers view the open latticework tower of the Sanibel Island Light, for example, from the edge of the shore, as four green turtles, their scales and shells exquisitely articulated, wriggle "onto land,/ Ready to lay eggs/ In the warm, damp sand." But several spreads break the predictability of the pattern: for the number five, Laroche zooms within inches of a Fresnel lens, where a quintet of fan-like luna moths alight on its surface; for the number nine, Fearrington fancies that even Martians can be entranced by the lighthouse's endless beams. A handsome salute to a seafaring institution—and proof that even grownups take comfort in nightlights. All ages. (July)
