JAMES MARSHALL'S MOTHER GOOSE

You'll skip right through this Mother Goose—partly because Marshall's selections are consistently bouncy and light, but partly because his goofy, one-note pictures don't often invite poring over. Instead of opening up the rhymes, his ". . . mulberry bush," "hickory-dickory-dock," and others make too short work of them. Bright spots include a dapper Humpty Dumpty, two jaunty versions of "Hey Diddle Diddle," two typically blimpy little girls (the one with the curl in the middle of her forehead, the other jiggety-jogging to market), and the various absurd trios in the parade beginning with "Three young rats with black felt hats." When Marshall is good he's pretty funny, and when he's bad he's not horrid, merely flat.