High in the Mountains

Gr 2-3-- A glimpse of a child's appreciation of mountain days: misty mornings, alpine meadows, streams fed by melting snow, big boulders, a road that ``wraps like elastic around each slope,'' the pleasures of a tent, a campfire, and the evening's ``cricket concert.'' Young's nearly abstract pastels are a concert in color and light: vivid greens, yellows and reds, rich blues and purples, the scheme changing with each spread. Unnatural hues in some scenes and sharply contrasting splashes of the brighter colors reflect and amplify the depth of feeling here. The dust-jacket illustration plus a hint in the brief text suggest that the narrator is native American. The blurb specifies the Colorado Rockies as the setting, but this doesn't capture a sense of place the way the Baylor/Parnall collaborations do. A lyrical, rather distant mood piece.

John Peters, New York Public Library

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