LITTLE FROG'S SONG

A familiar storyline in an especially felicitous setting. In concrete, evocative language, Schertle describes Little Frog's happiness in ``the wonderful wet world that was home,'' then his bewilderment when a sudden rain washes him away; her use of repetition as he seeks his lost home, sojourning with first a sheep and next a dog, is classic in form but fresh in expression (``The sheep, who spoke a different language, didn't understand. But...Little Frog settled down beside her. He tried to sing, but the meadow had no music for a frog. Still, he saw the same wind that whispered through the water reeds...''). The third to befriend Little Frog is a boy, who may not speak the frog's language but understands his needs enough to take him back to his home. Fisher's quietly luminous paintings are a perfect match for the text's mood of joyful tranquillity. In spare, lucid compositions and subdued yet intense colors, he sets the simple scene and provides refreshingly unconventional portraits (a doleful, angular dog; a sturdy, heavy-haired boy) and unusual pictorial effects (the frog glimpsed in the dark of the boy's pocket). Unusually pleasing—and a book that will have several uses (Patricia MacLachlan's Minna Pratt would enjoy sharing it with her friend Lucas). (Picture book. 4-10)