TINY TOES

If any part of the body deserves to have a children's book written about it, it is toes. Repeating the same syntactic formula- -``Tiny toes peek out from under the bedcovers,'' ``Crumbly toes waltz around the breakfast table,'' and so on—Jakob (My Bike, not reviewed) describes the activities of toes at different times of day and of the year, in endearing, occasionally too-cute language (toes are ``kicky,'' ``splashy,'' ``skippy,'' ``jumpy,'' etc.), with a few longer words thrown in. Levert's bubbly watercolors make the whole thing float in some of the sunniest pictures of the season. Full of greens and blues, these show children who look like fat little toes themselves; they play—take a bath, ride a bicycle, dance around—in stylized, old worldly settings that include top hats and windmills. The pictures are full of objects—little houses with little windows—that have the curved dimensionality of inflatable toys. If it could, this book would turn into a pillow. (Picture book. 3-6)