THE GARDENER

This latest collaboration from Stewart and Small (The Library, 1995, not reviewed) is the Depression-era story of young Lydia Grace Finch, whose family's financial woes are the occasion for Lydia's extended stay in the city with dour Uncle Jim. Lydia's letters to her parents and Grandma, her beloved gardening partner, tell of her adjustment to the city, her work in her uncle's bakery, and of her determination to make her uncle smile. Meanwhile, the pictures show Lydia's gradual transformation of the drab shop and their apartment ``over the store,'' as she plants the seeds from Grandma in pots and tubs and flowerboxes in every possible space. Her piäce de rÇsistance is the lush roof garden she cultivates in secret and springs on her uncle on the Fourth of July, earning Uncle Jim's equivalent of ``one thousand smiles,'' a huge cake elaborately decorated with flowers. It's a lovely story exemplifying the old adage, ``Brighten the corner where you are,'' and a good introduction to the epistolary form of storytelling. Small's marvelous pictures show the city in all its gritty variety- -pushcarts, pigeons, packing crates, fire escapes, awnings, nuns, bums, and dogs—and the scrawny, smiling bakery cat, Otis. (Picture book. 6+)