THE BABY BLUE CAT WHO SAID NO

Pryor's second book about the Baby Cats matches the first in appeal to the very young child. Three Baby Cats enjoy their fish sandwich supper and go sweetly to bed and to sleep, but Baby Blue Cat says, ""No,"" and stays alone at the table till Mama says, ""Oh my,"" and sits sad and worried in her favorite chair; then he quietly crawls into her lap, and after a hug and an apology, he eats his supper and gets a bedtime story after all. Although the story's pattern follows Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, its treatment, style, and appeal are completely different. Pryor's drawings are almost without detail, but so deftly drawn that they perfectly convey the warmth of this well-ordered, cozy family. The phrasing and repetitions are just right for dramatizing the two-yearold lap-sitter who has just discovered the joys of saying ""No!"" And if loving resolution doesn't always come so easily in real life, this is a fine model of the way both parent and child would like it to be. Baby Blue Cat's final ""NO!"" is sure to evoke happy giggles, although it may not make this the best bedtime story.