My Little Artist

Illustrator Green (To My Daughter, with Love) makes her debut as a writer with an unabashedly sentimental tale centering on a girl and her artist grandmother. As impressionistic as her paintings, Green's somewhat confusing narrative intersperses snippets of dialogue between the girl and Grandma with italicized, imagery-filled memories. In response to the child's question, ""Grandma, how do I become an artist?"" the woman repeatedly emphasizes the importance of ""heartsight."" Not all readers will grasp the sometimes abstract concepts Grandma uses to convey the meaning of ""heartsight"" (""Close your eyes and imagine the light as it dances through the [tree] branches and onto your face. What makes them move in your mind? Can you feel the birds flying? Can you smell the sunlight as it falls to earth?""). Yet the love between these two characters radiates perceptively from Green's emotive artwork as well as from her earnest prose (""When I drop my paint onto the wet paper it explodes just like my heart does for you,"" says Grandma as she paints). Ages 4-8. (Nov.) FYI: Donna Green was the subject of a recent PW feature (Children's Books, Nov. 22).