CLOUD EYES

This woolly-headed fable, trying to re-create the qualities of Native-American myth, tells of a visionary young Indian who restores honey to his tribe. He sees how the bears in the woods destroy beehives and, borrowing knowledge from a queen bee, he turns himself into a bear, dances his bear brothers into a deep sleep, then teaches his people how to take honey from the bees in a more respectful and environmentally correct way. And when the bears wake up, he calms them by dancing again. Lasky's (Days of the Dead, p. 1421, etc.) storytelling wanders and the plot doesn't make a bit of sense, either on a literal or a metaphorical level; the self-consciously lyrical language is downright tedious. Moser has contributed meticulous mood-setting pencil drawings in which you can see every hair of the bears' fur, but they're too soft-edged and subtle to really spark kids' imaginations. This book pushes all the trendy buttons, but it's too precious. Basically a real yawn. (Fiction/Picture book. 5-10)