HER BOOK

Kudos for the attempt at something simple, a little different, and slightly subtle; too bad that--for various reasons--it doesn't come off. ""Her time to wake up,"" we read with a picture of a clock and the sun looming through a window; ""Her toothbrush"" and ""Her toothpaste,"" we read--and see--on the next page. So we assume that this is a first-book of sorts--and regret that the pictures aren't in clear, strong colors, that parts of objects are cut off, etc. But after an inventory of other, mostly babyish things, we encounter ""Her friend"" (who's not a tot), ""Their lunch,"" ""Their secret path,"" ""Their roller skates""--and we realize that Wolf is trying to tell a story about children big enough, near the last, to prepare ""Their dinner"" . . . and somehow gotten it muddled up with a different, younger kind of conceptual book. The pictures aren't inviting for the very young; the approach is off-putting for the somewhat older. And the kiddy-ish lettering is altogether out of whack with the somber drawing style. But, pitched consistently and illustrated appropriately, it's not an unlikely idea.