HIGGLE WIGGLE

``Happy'' is the right word for these 25 deftly constructed poems about childhood pleasures: sounds, making faces (``How to Be Angry'': ``Scrunch your eyebrows/up to your hair,/pull on your chin/and glare glare glare...''), animals, weather, food, riddles, counting, day's end. The ebullient rhymes and onomatopoeia are perfect for tuning young ears for reading readiness (``Bath Time'' ends with ``Water down the drain...guggle uggle gluggle/Gurgle/urgle/gug''—Merriam's made- up words for sounds are always apt). Buoyant with humor and sketched with unassuming ease, Wilhelm's watercolors are actually crafted with great care. An expressive pink piglet that appears in most spreads lends unity to the whole, while even a simple vignette—like a rubber duck watching the last of the bathwater glug down the drain—can suggest a whole story. Nifty. (Poetry. 2-6)