FROM MISS IDA'S PORCH

``You can know where you're going in this world only if you know where you've been!'' Addressing adults as much as children, the narrator fondly recalls the sights and sounds of her neighborhood, especially Miss Ida's porch, a ``telling place'' where one summer night she heard old Mr. Fisher recall the time Duke Ellington himself came to stay because no hotel in town would have him. Another neighbor remembers hearing Marian Anderson sing at the Lincoln Memorial; a third, her farewell concert at Constitution Hall 25 years later. The author works earnestly and effectively to establish a sense of historical continuity; her strong purpose is buffered by some eloquent writing, and also by Cooper's soft-focus paintings, in which past and present mingle in warm medleys of brown and gold. List of biographies, recordings, and two videotapes. (Fiction/Young reader. 7-10), and also by Cooper's soft-focus paintings, in which past and present mingle in warm medleys of brown and gold. List of biographies, recordings, and two videotapes. (Fiction/Young reader. 7-10)