THE WAY IT HAPPENED

After Sarah--who has run into a tree tells Bill that she Fell off her bike, he gleefully tells his father that she ""can't ride her bike,"" Dad reports that she ""can't find"" it, and as the message is passed on the story grows and is finally broadcast on TV: Mike stole Sarah's bike and is still at large. When word gets to the innocent Mike, he flees on his bike and crashes into the same tree, at the feet of the astonished Sarah. In her first children's book, Zemke generates a lot of humor with her entertaining variant on the old whispering game of ""telephone""; the sequence of mix-ups is cleverly devised for mounting drama and confusion. The brightly colored pictures are full of verve, and bold enough to use with a group. Beginning readers will also enjoy reading the simple text.