POINSETTIA AND THE FIREFIGHTERS

Poinsettia the pig, whose house seemed too small and crowded in Poinsettia and Her Family, now has a room of her own--up in the attic, across from sister Petunia's. When a brother suggests she'll be scared, Petunia scoffs; but that night, scared by every sound, Poinsettia arranges ""a secret code"" whereby Petunia identifies them--until Petunia falls asleep. Then Poinsettia, ""the only one awake,"" spots a fire on the telephone wire in front of the house and rouses her parents. And once the blaze is extinguished, she learns that the firefighters stay awake all night too--why, she can even see the fire-station light from her high window! That pleasing notion caps a fairly ordinary juvenile conceit (as sex-stereotyped, incidentally, as books from a generation back). Bond's sprightly full-color cartoons are effective in a mass-market way, however--making this a book that won't gather dust, though it won't plant much in the way of thoughts either.