Gr. 2-4. An Edwardian classic gets a fresh lease on life with a recast text matched to eye-filling, lushly romantic art. Wood shortens Helen Dean Fish's wordy English version of the German original, drops the quaint gender roles, and changes the essence of what the Root children do from work to play. Wakened by Mother Earth, the children sew new "blossom costumes" from rainbows; emerge for a nonstop masquerade with Aunt Spring, jolly Cousin Summer, and studious Uncle Fall; and then retreat to their underground burrow to slip into sleep again, as old man Winter listens at the window to Mother Earth's lullaby. Bittinger's vigorously brushed oils capture the wild rumpus with an array of diminutive human figures--some depicted in pretty, late-ninteenth-century style, others looking decidedly modern--dancing with abandon in impressionistically verdant outdoor settings. For children sophisticated enough to understand the difference between science and metaphor, this is an engaging way of looking at the seasons, and the occasional languorous prose adds an undertone of subtle sensuality. John Peters

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Wood has retold -and refashioned-a century-old German tale into an engaging, romantic story of the seasons. Mother Earth awakes the Root Children and gathers bits of rainbow for them to make their colorful clothes. The children then wake the bugs and paint them in jewel colors. Aunt Spring welcomes the children in their bright and sweet-scented finery, and when she returns to her bed of ferns and lilies, Cousin Summer enters the scene. Soon, though, studious Uncle Fall arrives, and Mother Earth gathers the Root Children, who leave their brightly colored garments behind. The "masquerade" is over, and the Root Children are tucked in once again for the winter. Bittinger's rich oils show a multicultural group of Root Children, who gambol and play in fields, woods, and gardens in the sumptuous colors of forest and meadow. The original, published in German in 1906 by Sibylle von Olfers, was in verse; an early English translation is much more didactic and wordy. In both, the boy Root Children do the painting, the girl Root Children make the clothing, and they come to the earth to do their job, which is to become a profusion of plants, flowers, and grasses. Wood's tale changes the Root children's activities from work to play - not a bad thing, but a definite difference . This can be enjoyed with no knowledge or reference to the earlier tale, of course, and is quite charming in word and image. A song "Root children Sleep," completes the package.