Ransome's paintings accompanying Johnson's poem alternate between two types of images, one being a contemporary male storyteller under a large shade tree with five African-American children. The other images show some of the landscapes and creatures named in this poem about the beginning of the universe according to a story in Genesis. Excerpted from Johnson's poetic sermon, God's Trombones, this full-color picture book can be an inspiration as well as an introduction to the works of an achiever of the past century. (Ages 4-9)