The Fantastic Stay-Home-From-School Day

Playing hooky sounds heavenly to Eddie and Leona. But their plans for a ``vacation day'' spent reading comics and working on their rock collections soon go awry when Eddie's feigned illness fails to fool his mother. Leona doesn't fare much better, as her mother hires a cranky babysitter for her. Despite their mutual musings about the other's supposed good fortune--Leona wishes she were at school with Eddie, Eddie wishes he were home with Leona--both children have a rotten time. Hayashi's quick-paced text strings together an almost relentless number of incidents; her adventurous tone is sure to hold the attention of readers just graduating from chapter books. Unlike the secondary two-dimensional characters, Eddie and Leona's personalities are sufficiently fleshed out for this genre, and, most admirably, their narratives serve as an excellent introduction to the literary concept of point of view. Illustrations not seen by PW . Ages 7-10. (Mar.)