HUGH LOFTING'S TRAVELS OF DOCTOR DOLITTLE

This is the first of several tot-trots of Dr. D. in anticipation of the forthcoming film: it provides a reasonably accurate synopsis of the first hundred pages of the first book, or through the acquisition of the pushmipullyu and the departure from Africa, and then takes off for England very fast. (Presumably the plot has been coordinated with the film treatment.) The editors speak of a desire to ""preserve the magic of Hugh Lofting's style;"" the best that can be said is that they have preserved some of the words and avoided outright banality. The illustrations, also a simulacrum of the Lofting style, are quite pleasant, and of course the Africans have been anaesthesized--now they are sharp-featured, slender stalwarts in brown tights with red flesh, and their only antecedents are in a comic strip. (The cannibals had to go--but so far?) Still, it could have been worse all round, and there is a list of the original titles at the beginning.