A Summertime Song

An oversize, square format right away announces that this book is special, and the contents live up to the heightened expectations. The story--a sweet fantasy about a magical birthday party held in a moonlit garden--is well-told if not wholly original, but Haas (The Maggie B.) wraps it up in gorgeous illustrations whose sumptuous imagery and sultry compositions virtually define romance and mystery. On a summer night, Lucy receives a frog's invitation to a party, dons the paper hat he brings her and shrinks (""FOOF!"") until she is ""as little as a leaf."" She hops into a taxi driven by a baby bird, who subsequently picks up other party-goers, among them a doll that once belonged to Lucy's grandmother and has been lost for decades; the doll and its owner are reunited at the end a la William Joyce's The Leaf Men. The characters throughout are colorfully individuated through varied, distinctive speech patterns, and Haas adds a soup on of suspense via an owl intent on finding his dinner. The art is spellbindingly lavish: a softly glowing black background, a strewing of velvety flowers and papery leaves, a doll-like Lucy and a host of inviting, finely detailed creatures. Haas mingles these elements with deceptive ease, and punctuates her full-page art with small vignettes that decorate facing pages of text. A treasury of images, this is a book to savor. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)