THE ESCAPE OF MARVIN THE APE

Like Fatio's Happy Lion, Marvin leaves his cage at the zoo through an open door; unlike the lion, no one ever notices him as he roams—reading on the subway, giving his order to a bored waiter, catching a foul at a ballgame, or playing checkers in a park—nor does he return to the zoo (a hippo-escape provides the conclusion). Meanwhile, kids will have grand fun finding Marvin (not always easy, since—by some unexplained mechanism—he wears the right clothes for each activity), and examining the intriguing details in the bright, hard-edged paintings: Buehner combines Hopper's contrasts between luminous sunlight and richly shadowed color with an entertainingly satirical eye. Good fun. (Picture book. 4-8)