WATERSONG

Written by Tim McCanna, illustrated by Richard Smythe Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 32 pp., ages 4-8

A solitary fox makes its way through a rainy day, at first just enjoying the musical sounds of falling water and then racing for cover when the storm turns severe. Tim McCanna’s language is both melodious and spare, with only a few evocative words on each page (“squish squelch glop”) that capture both the diversity of water sounds and the music of language. Richard Smythe’s ravishing illustrations mine the depths of grays and blues, zooming in to watch a mouse duck for shelter and then whirling to the sky to show the fox tracking an inundated stream. The narrative is slight, but the beauty of each page is great enough that the story is incidental, making Watersong ( the rare book that can satisfy toddlers and bigger kids at the same time.