AT THE CROSSROADS

After ten months away in the South African mines, ``our fathers are coming home!'' to a shanty town set on an almost treeless plain. But the focus here is on joy and celebration: telling the other children at school, contriving instruments for a band to be joined by the whole neighborhood, singing and dancing at the crossroads. But it's a long journey home from the mines: the sun goes down, people drift away, and only the original handful of children waits until—at dawn—their fathers finally come. The understated drama of Isadora's quiet, carefully fashioned text blossoms in her freely rendered watercolors, where she conveys the beauty to be found in this shabby town: the rich colors of earth, sky and the surrounding hills; the patterns of fabrics and corrugated metal; the children's eager faces, vibrant with universal feelings. A beautiful, bridge-building book. (Picture book. 4-8)