Dazzled, a little girl listens to her old neighbor's story of following a falling star when he was a boy. He found it, too. He put it in her hands. But that's not all the starfinder has to tell. One day something found him. It's a story too good to keep. See for yourself. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Starred Review. Stories and the people who tell them form one of the main themes of much of Lyon's poetic work, and this sumptuously illustrated book, perhaps Gammell's finest, is no exception. The narrator begins conversationally, Once there was a old man./ I knew him/ when I was no bigger than you are. Working in his distinctive style, Gammell (previously paired with Lyon for Come a Tide) spatters a universe of colors across the page as the child dances with the man, who tells stories on his green porch. For starters, the girl says, he told me once/ he saw a star falling. The color illustrations give way to black-and-white paintings that convey an astonishing degree of light. The illustrations morph back into full color as the old man puts the star in the girl's hands glassy, blackish green/ like puddles around a coal pile. Lyon never lets readers forget that this is a story they are reading: Now he couldn't bring home/ the rainbow/ the way he did the star./ But when he told the story/ holding out his hand/ I could feel the colors./ I could see it was true./ And how he would have to tell it/ just like I'm telling you. Text and art are sure to evoke wonder in young readers. Ages 4-7. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

PreS-Gr 2 A story told in evocative free verse and graced with exuberant watercolors. A girl begins her narration when she was "no bigger than you are." She describes an old man who sits "in an old chair/on an old green porch" and tells tales of the time he found a falling star, and when he went for a walk and wound up at the end of the rainbow. The child feels certain that the outlandish stories must all be true. Where the text is restrained, the illustrations fairly holler with light and joy. During each of the Starfinder's stories, the palette begins with hushed expectation in black and white, gradually adding colors until the whole page is glowing. This is not to belie the power of Lyon's spare text it is only in the tension between the carefully chosen words and vivid pictures that the stories' magic emerges. A lovely collaboration. Rachael Vilmar, Eastern Shore Regional Library, MD Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Lyon and Gammell, the duo responsible for the memorable Come a Tide (1990), take on more feats of nature as a girl listens to a neighbor tell how, when he was a boy, he met up with a star and rainbow. Using his signature color washes for the parts of the story set in the present, Gammell moves to shades of gray when the story goes back in time. When the boy spots a star shooting across the sky, he follows it. He picks up the rock, which glints with gold, and keeps it until, as an adult, he gives it to the girl. Another time, the boy, lifted into the sky, starts turning colors-purple, red, green, yellow; he's at the end of a rainbow. He can't bring the rainbow home, of course, but he can tell the story. Lyon's prose is lyrical as always ("cool / warm / striped / air"), though why she describes the comet as smooth as an egg (it is jagged in the picture) is unclear. Gammell's energetic art, a mix of precise lines and hue-soaked swirls and shapes, captures both the everyday and the otherworldiness of the story. That said, some odd choices have been made here. By never showing the Starfinder's adult face, the character seems strange, even menacing. Then there's the abrupt ending, though an afterword helps finish the story. Despite the picture-book format, this isn't for preschoolers, and even older children, who may be drawn by the dreamy premise played out in the evocative art, may be confused by the goings-on. Cooper, Ilene. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.