Stone Wall Secrets

This elegantly designed book has an intriguing premise but loses its potential in a scattered focus and overburdened text. As the story opens, Adam's grandfather mulls over a difficult proposition: a stonemason's letter offers him an attractive sum for the rocks that compose the walls surrounding his New England farmstead. As Adam and his grandfather deliberate while walking the grounds, Grampa attempts to awaken in his grandson an affection for these stones as living history: ""The walls were like a library, stacked high with earthen books."" However, the authors soon bury any semblance of a story under layers of geologic, anthropological and familial information. The well-meaning text devolves into an environmental treatise, eschewing narrative credibility (e.g., Adam ""slipped the grainy, white stone into his pocket, like a paperback book to be read on a rainy day""). Unfortunately, the pictorial representations of the grandfather's visions which imply his nearly mystical connection to rocks do little to lighten things up. First-timer Moore's illustrations, defined by ink lines and subtle colors, are mostly stiff and static, and often miss opportunities to clarify the text. Ages 8-12. (July) FYI: An 80-page teacher's guide is scheduled for release in August ($8.95 ISBN -196-4).