ELIZABETH IMAGINED AN ICEBERG

A daring but not wholly successful book from the innovative creator of Yo! Yes? (1993/Caldecott Honor). Imagining a friendly (though unpersonified) iceberg gives Elizabeth self-confidence, which is exactly what she needs when a huge, overfriendly stranger accosts her (``What a charming, pretty girl do I see. Come tell me your name. Tell it quickly!''). Indeed, ``something [is] not right,'' and when the woman chatters on about how they'll ``fizz with the insects...trot with the armadillos'' and scoops Elizabeth up in a frightening parody of Vera Williams's ``More, More, More,'' Said the Baby, the child imagines what her iceberg would do, says ``Get away from me!'' and escapes on her bicycle. The expressively simple art and spritely, surreal tone do not at all disguise the earnest message here; unfortunately, in real life it may not be so easy to thwart so hefty and determined a molester. Still, these characters are distilled to a symbolic essence; by touching on children's secret fears, the dreamlike representation may help open them to discussion. (Picture book. 4-8)