ALPHABET DREAMS

A my name is Anna/ And my husband's name is Andrew./ We live in an aquarium,/ And we sell apples."" Unvaryingly, up to XYZ, Brown proceeds through the alphabet according to the pattern established in an old ball-bouncing chant, But there the appeal is the challenge to fill in a properly initialed word without missing the beat. The interest is considerably less when it's all done for you--even though Brown's choice of quarters and commodities contains some dreamlike images (""We live on a flagpole, and we sell fireworks. . . . We live in a kettle, and we sell kites"") and her fanciful drawings make the most of their airiness. Not until the end does she break the pattern, with ""My name's Xantippe,/ And my husband's name is You!!!// We swing on the signs of the Zodiac zoo""--an ingenious employment of those final three stumpers, but ephemeral overall.