THE BABY UGGS ARE HATCHING

More of Prelutsky's irresistible bounce-along monster rhymes, beginning with the uggily wuggily baby Uggs--whom Stevenson depicts as bumpy green lumps, most comical when gobbling each other--and ending with the Flotterzott: ""When days are hot,/ the Flotterzott/slides fight outside its skin,/and when it's not,/the Flotterzott/goes sliding right back in."" Among the other captivatingly gruesome creatures are the Quossible ("". . . it moves about all creepily/its diet is all people-y""); the Smasheroo who goes too far and gets smashed himself; the Nimpy-Numpy-Numpity, who most of all is grumpity; Snatchits who carry off sox, shoelaces, and the like; and the rich and slimy Slithery Slitch. Prelutsky gives the impression that these jiggety rhymes just roll off his tongue, as they will off readers'; and Stevenson makes the primitive monsters variously snaggle-toothed, hairy, centipedal, and lumpish with a matching scraggly humor.