BROWN HONEY IN BROOMWHEAT TEA

Framed by two maxims (``Broomwheat tea: good for what ails you...when poured by loving hands,'' and ``...A cup of loving kindness/helps keep a family going''), a cycle of a dozen lyrical poems exploring issues of African-American identity through delicately interwoven images related to the tea (brown and gold: ``I sprang up from mother earth/She clothed me in her own colors...As you would cherish a thing of beauty/Cherish me''; bitterness: ``There are those who/Have brewed a/Bitter potion for/Children kissed long by the sun...''; and sweetness, too: ``Honey's been here long...[but] What if the bees don't come?''), and also related to growth, freedom, and family (``I look across water/And cry for our trembling/Family tree''). Laden, but never overburdened, with meaning, the poetry is significant and lovely. Cooper's full-bleed paintings, with vibrant, unsentimentalized characters in earth tones illumined with gold, are warm, contemplative—a beautiful complement to Thomas's eloquence. A must. (Poetry/Picture book. 5+)