cover image Oink Moo How Do You Do

Oink Moo How Do You Do

Grace Maccarone. Cartwheel Books, $6.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-590-20655-6

Aimed at youngsters ready to graduate from board to picture books, these reasonably priced, jacketed volumes launch the Cartwheel Books Story Corner line. With their sturdy pages, minimal text and large-scale, uncluttered art, the 8""x63/4"" books are well-targeted to children just beginning to sound out words. Wilhelm's (Bunny Trouble) trademark, whimsical animal illustrations compensate for Maccarone's (Pizza Party!) uninspired rhymed couplets (``Honk! Neigh!/ We're on our way!'') to make Oink! the more successful of the two titles. Here, a menagerie of barnyard creatures utter their respective sounds as they descend on the farmer's apple-filled truck. They feast till they're shooed away; at nightfall, they gather under a tree (``Cheep! Cheep! Cheep! And now to sleep''). Meanwhile, Marzollo's (the I Spy books) banal, ineffectively repetitive narrative (``Three trees have bees,/ but I have a hat./ Four stores have doors, but I have a hat'') flaws Ten Cats, but there is sufficient animation and humor in McPhail's (Animals A to Z) distinctive art-featuring pigs with wigs and crabs in cabs-to entertain the reader. Ages 2-4. (Sept.)