SIMON'S BOOK

Action drawings, with a kinetic energy and a more sophisticated, tricksy play on the Harold and the Purple Crayon motif, illustrate what happens between Simon and a big furry beast when the little boy who draws them both gets tired and goes to bed. ""First it was a faint shuffle, then a louder rustle,"" as the boy's pens slither ""like caterpillars"" from their coffee can to introduce themselves. (""Simon shook their tails."") Soon the beast leaps, the fastest pen draws a hole in the page for Simon's escape, the beast follows them through, and the chase is on. (At this point the ink bottle stumbles and spills and, on the next page, we see only the pursuing beast's eye and bared teeth gleaming through the black splatter.) In a bit of a let-down, it turns out that the beast just wanted to kiss Simon, and everyone goes home together, to bed. And the boy who drew them wakes up in the morning to find the filled-in book, the same one that ""you have been reading."" Clever and offbeat like last year's Strange Appearance of Howard Cranebill, Junior, and alive and crackling with its scratches, splashes, charged-up beast, and Simon's stand-up Struwwelpeter hair.