DREAMSONG

With his parents' blessing, little Pavel sets off to search for the lovely song that he hears each night in his dreams but can never remember when he wakes. Following a river, he hears snatches of the song as it ripples against its banks, in a shepherd boy's flute in a mountain meadow, and in the cottage of an old harpmaker at the river's source. Home again as bidden, by sunset, the weary child falls asleep so fast that, once again, when his mother sings the familiar lullaby he hears it only in his dreams. A charming bedtime story, sweetly told and set in the long ago and far away. Green and gold tones predominate in luxuriant pictures, brimming with birds, butterflies, and flowers, by a gifted Russian illustrator in a fine US debut. (Picture book. 5-8)