NINE IN A LINE

The subtitle identifies this as ""From An Old, Old Folktale"" and it is also the sort of numbers game that the very young have long, long enjoyed playing. Amin was in charge of bringing home a sheik's newly-acquired nine camels. From his vantage point on the lead camel, Amin would twist around to count the animals, and every time he saw only eight. But when he went to find assistance in retrieving the missing one, his helper would always see that all nine were there. Eventually some children discovered that Amin, of course, had forgotten to count his own mount. The illustrations in brown, black, and white with touches of orange are subdued but have the right amount of mischief; the camels, though Disney-ishly boneless, carry the proper expression of snooty snickering.