A CREEPY CRAWLY SONG BOOK

Verbal, musical, and visual wit: 17 songs, with simple piano accompaniments, about centipedes, head lice, snails, and more. Oram doesn't blink at the subjects' roles as predator or prey—the ``Can of Worms'' baits a fisherman's hook; the ``Confession of a Praying Mantis'' is that her only prayer is ``GIMME FOOD''; and in ``The Black Widow's Waltz,'' a forgetful spider complains that her partners keep disappearing. The music varies in tempo, meter, style (gavotte, dirge, boogie-woogie, slow blues, lullaby) and musical difficulty; some of the rapid intervallic leaps and complex rhythms will be challenging to younger singers. Accompaniments are spare but effective, not always doubling the voices. Included are a two- part song, a three-part round, and two numbers calling for percussion. It would be fun to package this with Fleischman's Joyful Noise (1988) and Osborne's Spider Kane mysteries (p. 667) for kids who've outgrown Eric Carle's creepy-crawlies. (Song book. 8-12)