Last Leaf First Snowflake to Fall

An unpunctuated prose-poem and leaf-like collage illustrations trace an almost archetypal wilderness journey. As a Native American parent and child travel with their canoe, they find themselves camping out on the night during which fall palpably turns to winter (``The night wind howled a warning/ The moon and stars were swallowed up by dark clouds/ The last leaf fell''). The echoes and rhythmic repetitions of the Canadian author-artist's text mirror nature's own repetitive cycles; however, their incantatory and often abstract quality demands special talents from those reading the work aloud. His tissue-paper collages-softly wrinkled, with gradual variegations of hue-cast a more successful spell: their dreaminess is more accessible, their power likelier to linger. Ages 5-8. (Sept.)