Down the Lane: Sights and Sounds through the Seasons

Each double page spread in this smallish landscape picture book is devoted to a month of the year. Each contains a full page picture and two verses interspersed with vignette illustrations describing the changes in the natural world as the seasons unfold. Although the countryside is somewhat romanticised, the realistic illustrations appear to be very accurate in terms of detailing and colour. Greeley is a talented and accomplished artist, but the book would be considerably enhanced by informative passages about the changes in the landscape rather than the banal verses which accompany the illustrations. The book will be of use in classrooms but would have been even more useful if the format were a bit larger, or even if the illustrations had been bled to the edges rather than surrounded by a white border.