THE FOREST CHILD
by Richard Edwards & illustrated by Peter Malone
The dreamy, detached story of a feral child and a hunter's apprentice who meet in the forest and become friends. When the hunter sees them, he seizes the forest child and drags her back to his house where he roughly tries to ``civilize'' her. The apprentice races to the rescue, leading the wild animals that raised the girl; the hunter is killed, and the friends go off to live in the woods. Malone illustrates his first picture book as a dance, with figures posing and gesturing in studied, balletic ways against stylized backgrounds. The wild child in particular, with her ragged shift and gracefully unkempt hair, seems ever aware of her line. Edwards (Moles Can Dance, 1994, etc.) has created an adult aesthete's delight, perhaps, that is too self-conscious to elicit more than a superficial response from children. (Picture book. 6-9)