Lily and Trooper's Spring

A girl and her dog on a picnic have several run-ins with barnyard animals. A cow pulls away the picnic cloth; a pig objects when Lily wants to hold a piglet. The accommodating dog climbs a tree on command, rides a sheep and sits on the girl's lap as she swings. But the whimsy feels forced, and the text reveals little that's childlike about Lily herself. Spetter's (Just a Minute!) illustrations use color lushly: the backgrounds are sumptuous streaks of paint, the foregrounds show the girl and the animals on flattened planes. Even with the assertive handling of paint, there's not enough of a raison d' tre here for a book, much less a series: Lily and Trooper's Summer will also arrive in April ($8.95 -37-5), with Fall and Winter planned to follow. Ages 1-6. (Apr.)