Space Songs

On pages black as the night sky, Fisher and Livingston explore the meteors, satellites, messages and planets, of that ""other world, an otherwhere'' that is called space. As in their past collaborations (Sky Songs, Sea Songs, Earth Songs) the poems and paintings in this volume shimmer and dance. Fisher's stars ``pinwheel the Milky Way,'' and his Uranus is ``a ball of jade.'' Livingston's visual poetry spills like a meteorite to the ground or curves like the edge of the sun. She deftly combines fact with vivid metaphors: comets ``journey to see the sun/ whose searing burn/ swells them with gas/ as on they race/ streaming their blowing, sunlit hair.'' These poems and paintings are extraordinary, not only because of their depth of vision and beauty, but because they entreat the reader to explore the secrets that space keeps hidden: ``Space is silent./ It seldom answers./ But we ask.'' Ages 6-9. (April)