Grade 4 UpAThis lovely photo/poetry montage repeats the visual and textual themes of Myers's Brown Angels (1993) and Glorious Angels (1995, both HarperCollins). The endpapers are a wallpaper pattern of muted green and gray, and silver floral flourishes border the pages of black-and-white or sepia photographs featuring African-American women and children. The 10 distinctly styled poems may at first glance seem not to have anything in common with their accompanying picture groupings, but meaning is subtly reflected back and forth between sight and sound. With the first poem, "Angel to Angel," the big, white hair ribbons worn by the girls in one of the photographs look almost like angel wings. One of the illustrations for "Trees" depicts a mother with three very young children standing around her. The setting is urban, with not a tree in sight. However, the woman is like the tall trunk of an oak ("I am a tree/Strong limbed and deeply rooted"), and the children are like thick barked roots that resemble branches growing out from its base. The verse is varied, from the simple, descriptive tone of "Furniture" to the rhymed, chorus-filled expression of "Don't Mess with Grandmama and Me." This slim, pretty volume will appeal to anyone who appreciates the relationships between words and pictures, and between mothers and children.APeg Solonika, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA

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