DIG AND DUG WITH DAISY

A book that reads like a poor attempt at inducting girls into the mostly male bastion of trucks and large machinery. Dig and Dug are ``dumb and dumber'' as two inept, not-so- handymen. When the farmer's tractor breaks down, Dig and Uncle Dug, with the help of Daisy, try to use a pickup, tow truck, forklift, bulldozer, backhoe, and finally dump truck to deliver fruit to Mrs. Green's store. Intended silliness becomes slapstick as the lamebrained duo muddles through one bad idea after another. Gumby- like multiracial characters appear amidst cut-paper props, and the effect is a series of stiff scenes that have none of the fluidity of clay animation. Young truck-lovers will find none of the kindergarten humor of James Marshall's The Stupids here, and while Daisy solves the fruit problem, it's by design and not deed in this piece of gender equity gone awry. (Picture book. 3-5)