WHO'S A CLEVER BABY?

As in David Lloyd's Duck (1988), the baby here persists, in spite of Grandma's best efforts, in calling all animals by the same name--in this case, ""dog."" But McKee offers a less affectionate rendition of this early power struggle than Lloyd did, who depicted it as an important, misunderstood learning process. As they tour their neighborhood, Grandma gets more and more frantic in her attempts to cajole: ""See the statue? See strong Samson silently struggling with Simon, the serious stone lion. Say 'lion,' Baby."" Combined with the cartoonlike illustrations showing a dumpy, middle-aged grandma and her self-possessed grandchild, these alliterative tirades hold some humor, especially as they lead up to Baby's mischievous triumph: finally confronted with a dog, he says ""Cat."" But since there's no real development of the idea here, the book goes on too long. An acceptable additional story.