COWBOY ED

The author of the ebullient Tommy at the Grocery Store (1989) brings his clever versifying to another nonsense saga. In little Ed's dreamlike adventure, everything goes by opposites: horses ride cowboys, children teach teachers, etc., ``...because/That's the way/We've always done it/In the past.'' When it rains animals until they crowd every space, the past offers no solutions; so hero Ed, proclaiming ``I always use my head./And I seldom give a hoot/About the past,'' suggests ``when in a pickle,/It is often wise to tickle...''—a lame conclusion to a narrative that's sometimes deliciously silly, but whose bantering tone sits uneasily with its dark subtext. The worst mismatch, however, is with the illustrations. Wint debuts with elegant faux-naãf figures on a black ground—handsomely decorative and with real ``stage presence''—but simply not very funny. There's plenty of talent here, but it's oddly misdirected. (Picture book. 4-8)