Faulkner is a whiz at illustrating other people's books, including Judith St. George's "Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln," also published this month, and Carol Hagen's entertaining "The Night Henry Ford Met Santa" (2006). Here, though, his exuberant, cartoony watercolors animate a bit of American history that he has dramatized himself -- albeit through the voice of LuLu, "short for Lucresia," whose friend Abbey has returned from a trip to the big city spouting crazy tales of a water bubbler marked "COLORED." Contemplating the "wondrous possibilities" of this, LuLu and her cousin steal a ride to the city to taste the marvel for themselves. But, of course, it's the early 1960s, it's the South, and the children's rainbow-h- ued fantasy dissolves into a black-and-white scenario that's at once sobering and scary.