Sharon Wilson. Simon & Schuster, New York.

*** Bermudian artist Sharon Wilson has struck gold again with her latest illustrations for a children's book.

She has produced another stunning series of pastels to match award-winning The Day Gogo Went to Vote -- a kids' book set during of the end of the apartheid era in South Africa.

This time, Ms Wilson uses Texas and the state's Juneteenth celebrations of 1943 as a backdrop.

And her fuzzy textured artwork captures perfectly the heat haze and dusty atmosphere of Texan high summer.

The book centres around June 19, Juneteenth Day, a celebration of the emancipation of Texan slaves in 1865 -- more than two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

The core of the book is a clash of cultures between June, a little Texan girl, and her cousin Lillie, from New York City.

Lillie -- who thinks of herself as a sophisticated northerner -- belittles Juneteenth as "a dumb old slave holiday.'' And she embarrasses her cousin again after spotting a "whites only'' drinking fountain -- a symbol of the apartheid system June and her family still have to live with in the South, saying living below the Mason-Dixon line "makes you like a slave.'' But the cousins cross the cultural divide after the intervention of aged Aunt Marshall, a child of around June's age when General Granger landed on the state's Galveston Island and proclaimed US sovereignty over Texas -- and set the slaves free.

And Lillie comes to terms with her family's past when Marshall tells the two girls that the limits set on her freedom won't exist for them someday.

The confident brushstrokes leaving huge textured swirls across illustrations help give a warm sandy glow to many of the scenes portrayed.

But surprisingly, Ms Wilson said she hadn't visited Texas, unlike Gogo where she travelled to South Africa.

She explained: "You can see that setting is not really specific -- it's not so much about the specific area as the story.

"It's a universal message -- that's one of the things which drew me to the project.

"There are parts of us which maybe we don't like to remember because it's painful -- but for anyone remembering there is something of value which you can take away with you.'' Particularly strong are the illustrations involving Aunt Marshall and one or both of the two girls.

Even with the deliberate hazy quality to the work, Ms Wilson captures the tension between the two children from a common heritage but different backgrounds.

And, in the scene when Aunt Marshall tells the two girls how she was reunited with her sister Sophie -- fiery like Lillie -- after freedom became official, the contrast of the aged lady in her chair and the enthralled youngsters casually sitting on the ground is beautifully balanced.

Juneteenth may not be widely known outside Texas, although its popularity is spreading throughout the US, but the story -- strengthened by Ms Wilson's thoughtful work, is sure to create echoes reverberating through time for many, in Bermuda and elsewhere.

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