THE GREAT FROG RACE

George's first book features small poems about country living, with a spirited introduction by the late Myra Cohn Livingston (B Is for Baby, 1996, etc.), who has presided over better collections as poet and anthologist. A haze of nostalgia hangs over simple poems about polliwogs, plowed fields, dragonflies, and old metal buckets, somewhat muting their meaning and resonance for contemporary children. ``Patient old fence,/Waiting for another November,'' and ``the perfect tree/different from the rest—/the one where a bird/has built her nest'' are lovely images, but their intensity is not sustained and readers may lose interest. The oil illustrations are heavy and sometimes dark, with rather awkward humans and large animals but clearly modeled insects, frogs, and birds. (Picture book/poetry. 5-8)