King Odorant and His Flies: Written by Larry Miller and Sheila Lucas

Picture books with an obvious educational agenda are always a loaded proposition. This one hammily attempts a light-hearted approach to explaining that, in nature, ``even the creepiest, nastiest creature is linked in subtle, but important, ways to almost everything else.'' Pestered by flies, a malodorous monarch who refuses to bathe commands his wizard to banish the insects. The magician warns of the dangers of meddling with nature, but the king learns his mistake only after the flies' departure precipitates a mass exodus, starting with the spiders and frogs and moving up through the food chain to the cows, farmers, fisherman and ""the entire gardening club."" His ""royal rancidness"" finally relents, and the balance of nature is duly restored. Lucas's cartoonish illustrations, heavy on the purples, contain flashes of wit (a ""for sale"" sign near an anthill; refugee frogs carting away their lily pads) but aren't sufficiently polished to temper the wordy, clumsily conceived text. Ages 4-up. (Oct.)