Artist Noda's images are luminous indeed: her collages, made from handmade paper and watercolor, have a wonderful three-dimensional quality to them. Layered and patterned almost like quilts, her pictures marry dreamlike perspectives and juxtapositions with deep jewel colors. Each nonrhymed verse is addressed like a letter--"dear stars," "dear tulips," "dear ocean"--as she relates to the natural world with a child's frank curiosity. There is, unfortunately, an awkwardness and a sentimentality to the text; it often sounds like a grown-up pretending to be a child. This is one example of the pictures pulling up a less-than-successful text: a page covered with heart-shaped flowers, trees, and even a heart-shaped moon resonates with "dear valentines" as the speaker, whose grandmother gave her a box of valentine chocolates, says, "Before I went to bed / I ate them all by mistake." GraceAnne DeCandido Copyright c American Library Association. All rights reserved