LIKE A WINDY DAY

Using just a few words per page, this father-and-son team creates an autumnal ode in which a girl imagines herself one with the wind. “I want to play like a windy day,” reads the opening; a framed panel shows the child gazing at the breeze above. “I want to zoom down hillsides.” With flowing hair and arms outstretched to touch a floating leaf, the wind looks just like her. Throughout, mural-like panels appear on double-page spreads; as the girl and her wind twin travel from city to countryside to seashore and back the leaf remains just out of reach. As in their first collaboration, Baby Duck’s New Friend (2001) the Asch duo’s pen-and-ink illustrations are digitally enhanced allowing for a softening of lines and a diaphanous overlay of color. In the first spread, for example, undulating layers of lavender, robin’s egg, and cornflower blue create a colorful horizon against which the ghostlike wind glides. As the girl takes flight (“I want to scatter seeds”), the dandelion she’s holding loosens its delicate spores that flow like tiny white birds above the verdant glade. The dreamlike imagery enchants and the simple text is sure to inspire interpretive movement from the preschool set. A good bet for sharing on a blustery day. (Picture book. 3-7)