NICHOLAS' RED DAY

A friendly driver, seeing Nicholas admire his beautiful red bus, tells him that ""red makes people cheerful and happy."" Nicholas, who is ""not the smartest boy in the world,"" proceeds to paint himself red--until his mother sees him--and then he sets out to find his fun where she can't see him. In a rambling narrative, he discovers that a red light means stop and enjoys red strawberries and punch (and various uncolored amusements) before he ends up in bed with ""nice red spots""--measles. The illustrations (in black and red, naturally) make amusing use of collage techniques but Nicholas looks uncomfortably like a cretin and the story doesn't give him much help.