MOMMY, BUY ME A CHINA DOLL

...What could we buy it with, Eliza Lou?"" ""We could trade our Daddy's feather bed....."" ""Then where would our Daddy sleep, Eliza Lou?"" ""He could sleep in the horsey's bed..."" is how the answers to the title plea take off in this catchy accumulating-rhyme-into-lullaby, adapted from an Ozark children's song. The incongruities as little Eliza Lou tries to reorganize the arrangements of the household are of the sort that pre-schoolers in particular are likely to find howlingly funny (""Horsey in our Sister's bed,"" ""baby in the kittens' bed,"" ""piggies in Eliza's bed,"" and so on). Groups will easily swing into the rhythm of the verse, and the full page illustrations are big and bold enough to be used en masse too. They are a surprising but welcome shift from the style Mrs. Zemach used in Salt and many of her other books. The figures are somewhat similar, but with the qualities attributed to mountain folk in American primitive art. The all-over coloring is in deep autumnal shades outlined in black, giving a rough mosaic effect. Text and illustrations pull you right into the game. Try it--Mommy, buy me Mommy, Buy Me A China Doll.