THE FABULOUS FOUR SKUNKS

Stinky, Smelly, Reeky, and Stenchy form a rock band and, to their delight, land a gig at the local teen center. The audience flees in disgust, but soon returns, sporting clothespins and chanting, ""Blay somb more songs . . . We lub you."" The fetid foursome look more like badgers than skunks in the vigorously inked and brushed watercolors, and the plot seems rudimentary next to, say, Elise Primavera's The Three Dots (1993) or Graham Oakley's undeservedly scarce Frog Band stories. Still, Fair's debut shows promise and has obvious appeal to fans of The Stinky Cheese Man (1992) and other books of that odor.