Blue Out of Season

Ewing provides lively illustrations in spicy colors to Penn's story, an enticing blend of whimsy and education on the vagaries of weather. Sitting in her yard, a little girl named Mandi sees a perfect snowflake land on a warm spring day. She is amazed and even more taken aback when the flake, Parden, speaks to her. Parden's winter cloud has sailed off course and he has slipped away from his fellow blues, the flukes in charge of snow and ice. As his tale unfolds, Mandi meets a spring fluke who organizes the crew in a rain cloud to take Parden back to his friends. A dancer with the New York City Ballet and other major companies, Penn was stricken with rheumatoid arthritis, which ended her career but opened the door to another in children's books. Most of her royalties from this one will go to the Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis section, National Medical Center, Washington, D.C. (611)