A loved book lifts you -- comforts, excites, entices. Book, in words and paintings, captures the feeling of opening to page one -- for the first or the fiftieth time - and entering the worlds of drama, imagination, and fun promised beyond it. A girl in red flannel pj's reaches toward a panel in the night sky. The panel, one of four, bears a B. Light floods the girl's face, all anticipation, for she is all readers.And then she is inside, inside the B-O-O-K, words streaming toward her, beckoning, circling her, music in their meaning and their sound A castle, a cave - its walls dancing with wild ponies, one of which joins the girl on her journey -- these are passing wonders on the way to the source. Writer and reader meet "as the gate of the book swings wide, " a culmination caught in a breathtaking sequence of spreads. Look at the girl on the jacket for a hint of how Book feels, a sensory adventure that ends with a benediction: "May it hold you. May it set you free."
