THE MYSTERIES OF ZIGOMAR
by Allan Ahlberg & illustrated by John Lawrence
A haphazard collection of poems, musings, noodlings, and heavily revised fairy tales from Ahlberg (The Better Brown Stories, 1996, etc.). The poems, in general, are better than the stories: ``Getting Up for School'' and ``The Vampire and the Hound'' have built-in kid appeal, while others—``Father and Child,'' about a dad observing his son mailing a letter on a snowy night—are good but with an adult perspective. The best of the stories is ``The Paper Boy,'' about a lonely boy made of paper; by accepting his paper self he manages to get color into his life (via preschoolers armed with crayons) and to make a new friend. Other selections are less successful: A rewritten version of Snow White and a tale aptly titled ``Cock and Bull Story'' meander into unfunny asides. It's not a bad book, but it's not on par with collections by Prelutsky, Silverstein, and Dahl, and not even up to Ahlberg's own high standards. (Anthology. 6-12)