Farming

Gibbons delivers what her readers have come to expect: picture books that describe real-life activities and familiar functions. Life on the farm is a mode of existence most people take for granted. Gibbons depicts aspects of that life with her characteristic bright colors and stylized forms in a conceptual space that is intended to portray not one particular farm but a universal one. Every season brings its own specific chores, indoors and out, its own crops and its own food. There are the forces of nature, and the ways the farmer harnesses or copes with the elements using mechanical devices. Despite an overuse of the passive voice (``The vegetable garden is planted . . . water is lugged . . . fields are fertilized'') this is a good addition to the author's energetic how-to books. Ages 4-8. (April)