Shaker hymns, Biblical passages, Tewan prayers, and more are compiled in this richly illustrated picture book with angel-related artwork from Picasso, the Book of Hours, and others. K Up-Despite a title that seems to limit the subject matter to angels, this collection of 21 spiritual poems ranges much farther, with a fine variety of selections. It is magnificently illustrated with full-page reproductions of works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. For example, three haiku by Kobayashi Issa are enhanced by a traditional Japanese woodblock print of a girl viewing plum blossoms at night. Langston Hughes's "Tambourines" is paired with an exuberant panel from Romare Bearden's The Block, and a section from William Blake's "Auguries of Innocence" with one of the poet's dreamy etchings. St. Richard of Chichester's "Day by Day" appears with praying girls by Kate Greenaway, and Cecil Frances Alexander's "All Things Bright and Beautiful" with a detail from Edward Hicks's Peaceable Kingdom. The juxtapositions of verse and picture are always creative and sometimes delightfully surprising. The poems include Hindu, Persian, Mayan, and Tewan works, as well as American, English, and Biblical quotations from sources such as e. e. cummings, Walt Whitman, Ecclesiastes, Ogden Nash, Mary Oliver, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Emily Dickinson. Beautiful color printings; lustrous, gold angelic endpapers; and a clear, handsome typeface all add to the quality of this special collection.-Patricia Pearl Dole, formerly at First Presbyterian School, Martinsville, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Gr. 4-up. The beauty of art combines with the simple majesty of prayer in this compilation illustrated with artwork from the Metropolitan Museum. With the theme of angels running throughout, the prayers come from around the world. "Tambourines," a joyous gospel shout by Langston Hughes, is handsomely matched with the angel-filled The Block, by Romare Bearden; the simple twelfth-century prayer "Day by Day" is illustrated with a Kate Greenaway engraving entitled "Grace before Meals," showing three little girls with their heads bent in prayer. Prayers and art are mixed and matched; an American prayer is illustrated with a watercolor from India. There are also haikus, translations from the Bhagavad Gita, and psalms from the Bible. Some of the prayers will be over the heads of younger readers, but families reading this together will find much to discuss, both about the words and the handsomely reproduced pictures. Ilene Cooper Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved