A Farm

With a reverent devotion to detail, Dumas (The Lippizaners) anatomizes daily life on a picturesque English farm of yesteryear. The generous format (17 3/4"" x 11"") and the landscape orientation let readers know they are in for a primarily visual experience, and, indeed, Dumas's watercolors create a sense of bustle and activity. Deceptively quick, the illustrations are also meticulous in their particularity, from the designs for hen houses and cheese cabinets to the mechanisms for opening gates and tethering a donkey. The text, essentially a series of captions, strings together the images only loosely; while Dumas names characters, the farm itself is implicitly the protagonist, its rhythms defining the scope of the book. Tiny print above the art identifies details and defines words such as heifer and hinny, and an index enables readers to look up items such as pruning fork and service entrance. A handsome, nostalgic tribute. Ages 9-up. (Nov.)