How Does the Wind Walk?

A little boy watches the wind through the four seasons of the year

Kindergarten-Grade 2-A young boy experiences the many different moods of the wind throughout the seasons. In autumn, he makes a pile of leaves and sits in the middle of it. Winter brings wind at night that "walks with a whistle and a whip in her hand." In spring, "the wind walks with a bounce in her step." She takes a hat here and a kite there and leaves broken flowers that the child collects. In summer, everyone must wait for a breeze-except for the boy, who puffs his own to move his toy boat. Ray's soothing illustrations, rendered in acrylic on canvas, beautifully capture Carlstrom's poetic text. Together they produce a very gentle story. Readers will enjoy following the child's activities as he works and plays under the various conditions.
Rachel Fox, Port Washington Public Library, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A little boy observes the wind's different moods in each of the four seasons. Brief and strongly patterned, Carlstrom's poetic text has lots of alliteration and some subtle internal rhymes. Ray's full-bleed acrylic paintings are impressionistic: crisscrossed strokes of fiery orange suggest a pile of autumn leaves; bright white shapes billowing over sky blue make clothes whipping on a line; the palest bands of color form sky, sea, and shore in a hazy, dead-calm summer scene. With great economy, both author and artist have achieved wonderfully evocative effects. Pair this lovely mood piece with Marie Hall Ets's Gilbert and the Wind (1963). (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.