If I Were the Wind - Hardcover

Ages 3^-6. A little girl wants to know what her mother would do if a wicked witch changed Mom into the wind or a tree. A litany of ways her mother would protect her, no matter what her shape or fate, is what follows: "If I were the sun I would color your sky, with crimson and scarlet to dazzle your eye / If I were the sea in my waves you could play / If I were a path I would show you the way." The sentiment is sweet (though it may seem saccharine to some), and the rhyming text is generally well executed. The artwork is uneven: some scenes of mother and daughter together are wonderfully endearing, but the pictures can also be stiff, and images of the mother in the toy box or as part of a tree are just plain odd. Still, many moms will probably be glad to find this on library shelves and will enjoy reading it aloud. Ilene Cooper

PreS. This lullaby is meant to reassure a young child of a mother's love. No matter what might happen, if the mother were changed into the wind or the moon or a quilt, she would still be there to care for her little girl. Soft watercolors reinforce the gentle tone of the text. The illustrations, however, are bland, and the rhyming couplets sometimes sound forced ("If I were a chair I would rock you all day,/and on my soft cushion your head you could lay"). Margaret Wise Brown's Runaway Bunny (HarperCollins, 1942) treats the same theme and is more spirited.?Sally R. Dow, Ossining Public Library, NY
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