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.