Teachers and parents will immediately recognize Patrick, the subject of this appealing, slice-of-life picture book: He is the child who just can't sit still. Patrick knows 101 ways to sit in a chair; the drawing shows this happy, lanky kid always in motion in eight different chairs, as he rocks, kicks, lounges, and sprawls. ``Sit still'' are the two words he hears most, but Patrick really can't help it--even the doctor admits that there's nothing he can do for the boy. Patrick's mother, though, is not so placid; she comes up with dozens of activities for Patrick and starts walking to school with him. No Attention-Deficit Disorder in this book, no administering of Ritalin; Carlson (How to Lose All Your Friends, 1994, etc.) is interested in a good old case of the fidgets, capturing Patrick in bright, flat, action-filled pictures with strongly diagonal compositions and multiple images that convey motion. The solution will strike some as simplistic, but the good humor and tolerance expressed send a positive message about kids like Patrick. (Picture book. 5-8)
