MOTHER EARTH
by Nancy Luenn & illustrated by Neil Waldman
Luenn's poetic text explores the title's image—``Mountains her bones/ Trees and plants her living hair/...Frogs and snakes are her sense of smell/ Insects her thoughts''—the metaphor is intriguingly applied, though it seems overextended. At the end, we who are ``her eyes'' and ``her children'' are encouraged to give back to the earth what we can: ``Plant living hair...use her gifts well.'' Waldman's designerly, heroic-scale watercolors present the earth in light-filled rainbow colors. An earnest paean that will appeal to many readers and can do only good. (Picture book. 4-8)