Shibumi and the Kitemaker

After a decade-long absence, Mayer returns to picture books, using computer-generated graphics to illustrate an original tale set in long-ago Japan. When the emperor's daughter, Shibumi, discovers the poverty-stricken world beyond her garden walls, she longs to resolve the inequity. Tying herself to an enormous kite fashioned for her by the royal kite-maker, she takes flight, telling her father that she will not come down until the city below ""is as beautiful as the palace, or the palace is as squalid as the city."" Wealthy noblemen who wish to preserve the status quo mount an attack, and the kite carries off both Shibumi and the kite-maker. The bereaved emperor spends his years trying to make amends, and in the end a young samurai sets out to find the princess and restore her to her father and the transformed city. Mayer grounds his message in familiar fairy tale elements, and proceeds at a leisurely pace. His computer art approaches the brooding style of his paintings in East of the Sun & West of the Moon (as opposed to his Little Critter books, for example). Compositions using traditional Japanese images, from cherry blossoms and cranes to paper lanterns, lavish kimonos and bonsai trees, are set off against a series of slightly surreal backdrops. Some will associate this art with the souped-up visuals of CD-ROM action games; others will find the mix of elements haunting. All ages. (Sept.)