After listening to this peaceful lullaby, children will drift gently off to sleep with visions of the nighttime forest. A young Chippawa girl asks her glowing friend, Wah-wah-taysee, the firefly, to guide her through the darkened forest to her cradle and to her dreams. Readers will share the little girl's sense of wonder and respect for nature as she and Wah-wah-taysee explore the forest and greet the animals of the night. The wolf, the fox, the owl, and others meet them along their path. Then, after seeing her safely home, the firefly softly glows in the child's dreams of the nighttime forest. Marty Husted's warm color pencil and watercolor illustrations enfold young readers and listeners in velvet comfort. The darkened forest and the nighttime animals are beautifully detailed in the pages of FIREFLY NIGHT. PreSchool-Grade 1-In this lullabylike poem inspired by a passage from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Hiawatha, a young Chippewa girl (in "traditional" dress) follows fireflies through the night, as they illuminate various animals. The rhymed couplets are unremarkable, even plodding. "Wah-wah-taysee, firefly;/name for you from Chippewa./Flash your golden signal bright/as the evening turns to night." ("Chippewa" is not a language, although "Algonquian" is). The text is set on white framing double-page or page-and-a-half illustrations. The realistic watercolors in deep, purple tones are comforting but drab. Spot illustrations depicting Chippewa beadwork patterns decorate some pages. Acknowledging the fanciful element in the poem, some parts are still questionable. "Show me the grizzly's hidden lair" shows the girl smiling in delight at a sleeping bear. "Shine on the turtle, snake, and frog" shows a turtle sunning itself under the moon. The smiling animals all follow the girl home to her wigwam, and to sleep. In all, this book offers little beyond a catalog of forest and marsh animals. Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Carole Gerber is the author of many books for children, including LEAF JUMPERS, WINTER TREES, and ARCTIC DREAMS. She lives in Columbus, Ohio. Used Book in Good Condition