Rosamund

This thin picture book is a soufflee of nostalgia for an Anglo-Saxon heritage. Johnson intertwines the genealogy of the flower called Rosa Mundi with that of the English family sprung from Rosamund, a 12th-century noblewoman for whom the bloom was named. Rosamund's descendants name their daughters Rosamund, and they tend Rosa Mundi throughout the Crusades, civil wars, impoverishment and migration to New England and, finally, a westward trek to the Oregon Territory. Frankly sentimental about family and continuity, the book will probably hold more appeal for adults than their progeny, especially given Johnson's failure to explain any of the tumultuous historical events (``On the one side was the white rose, on the other the red'' suffices here for the War of the Roses). The sections set in America are more tightly linked and more detailed, but the construct throughout feels inescapably contrived. Paintings are pretty yet superficial, their subjects as artificial as the text itself. Ages 5-8. (Sept.)