LITTLE TOWN

Advanced second graders should be able to compass the vocabulary, with a few misses, third graders should find it straight going -- and the content is to be highly recommended, particularly for children brought up in small towns rather than cities, where the hour by hour activities are familiar patterns. It is a good idea, this timetable of an average family, -- the father a commuter, the mother active to local affairs, two of the three children in school. The other people of the community, officials and plain inhabitants; the town doings -- all have a familiar ring. But - seen as the pattern of one day, there is too much crowded into the 24-hours. The result is sure to be confusion for small readers. And -- once again- the are disappointing in their pictorial handling of people. Their settings, their animals, their color and decorative quality are, as always, charming.