Leave it to Caldecott-winning illustrator Eric Rohmann to exactly capture the touching, transporting beauty of a girl hugging a fish. In fact, Rohmann may have some practice at it, having arranged a repeat performance of sorts with Asha here (the fishy friend in Clara and Asha), so similar is she to her smiling piscine counterpart in 1997's wonderfully dreamy Cinder-Eyed Cats. To call Asha a "flying" fish would be a misnomer--Asha properly floats, as she does from the beginning of this book when she drifts in through the bedroom window of Clara, a pony-tailed girl who can't bring herself to fall asleep. ("'Clara! Time for bed,' my mom calls. But I'm not sleepy, so I open my window...and wait for Asha.") Rohmann's sweeping, lyrical, painterly style here--much more similar to Cats and Prairie Train than to My Friend Rabbit--provides a perfect backdrop for Clara and Asha's frolics. As with the huge fish in Cinder-Eyed Cats, imaginary-friend Asha seems to be brought to life from a child's longing alone (in this case, coaxed out of the statuary of a park fountain), so she;s more than happy to play tag, take baths, have tea parties, and even help Clara with her Halloween costume (as, naturally, a fisherman). The last half of this bedtime picture-book follows Clara and Asha across several sleepy, wordless, panoramic spreads, as the duo navigates (and swoops, and somersaults) by starlight across the night sky. This graceful drop in