TEN LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS ABOUT HIPPOPOTAMUSES

The subtitle clarifies Little's approach in his first book: ""And More Little-Known Facts and a Few Fibs About Other Animals."" Both droll and silly, it will need some booktalking to find an audience. The graphics and format are sophisticated; the text is wry and dense with information and deliberate misinformation. Some sections are funny: The ""Shoppers' Guide"" offers ten rules for telling apart a pineapple and an echidna (spiny anteater). On the page, spiny anteaters wind in and out the text and pineapples sit in a stately row. Other sections of the book (a short story called ""How Isabella spoke bird"") demonstrate just what an odd mix of fact and fiction this volume is, which LC catalogues as 591 (Animals-Miscellaneous). Fact-finders may not find the more fanciful flights helpful; these are sometimes so subtle that fibs and facts will be hard for children to tell apart. Nevertheless, Little has a lively imagination; after playing so fast and loose with nonfiction, it will he interesting to see what he comes up with next.