CHINOOK!

A children's literature professor, reared in Alberta, makes a fine picture-book debut with some nicely understated tall tales about the warm, dry wind that sweeps down from the Rockies' eastern slopes. The stories are told by old Andrew Delaney McFadden, who's out ice-fishing when he hustles two skating children into his rowboat and gives them gives an urgent warning: back in 1888, when ``it was as cold as a snake's kiss,'' a chinook not only melted the ice faster than horses could gallop but left him floundering in dangerously hot water (hence the boat). Old Andy regales the kids with several more delightfully exaggerated ``experiences'' before sending them on their way with the admission that he may worry too much—``If a [chinook] comes, I'll row like the dickens and pick you out of the water.'' Root's sweeping brush strokes, affectionate caricatures, and sly humor are right in the spirit of the entertaining story. (Picture book. 4-9)