A fat volume of small illustrated rhymes from Silverstein, who gets down to the level of kids' peeves, spooks, and sense of silliness often enough to score a collective hit. His cast includes a babysitter who thinks her job is to sit on the baby, a selfish child who prays that if he dies his toys will break so no one else can have them, a walrus with braces, and a man who thought he had wavy hair till he shaved it off and found he had a wavy head. There are some funny twists and take-offs on familiar rhymes and tales--such as a speculation on what would happen if Captain Blackbeard shaved, and a warning to the "Rockabye" baby that a treetop is no place to rock: "Baby, I think someone down here's got it in for you." There are also a number of typical twist endings, many of them lame or predictable--but then you can't expect 168 laughs in 168 pages. For undertow, there's the eyeball in the gumball machine (a sentinel reminder that "I" have had enough gumballs) and the fearful "Whatifs" that climb into "my" ear at night. All in all, bright and knowing nonsense.
