FULL MOON SOUP

For Waldo fans, another oversize wordless book to pore over. Seen in a cross-section of a country hotel from crowded attic to crypt under the kitchen stairs, the Splendide houses more than a score of players, amusingly summarized in ``before'' and ``after'' endpapers. As the action begins, all is normal—guests are arriving as the staff bustles about—including the cook, tasting his chartreuse soup. Suddenly, he goes berserk and becomes a werewolf, while all over the building other things also go madly awry: a robber lets out a vampire, ghosts appear in the attic, portraits misbehave, a lover tries to jump from a balcony. Meanwhile, a spaceship gets ever closer until it collides with the hotel, which now also becomes the site of a flood, an explosion, and various invasions (e.g., Vikings, Romans, Arabs, a surfing Eskimo, sheep) in the course of its spectacular demise. Tall-tale metaphor for Britain? Anyway, an imaginative riot that should provide hours of entertainment. (Picture book. 5+)