EMILY'S BUNCH

What to wear to Herbie Beanstock's costume party is a dilemma for little Emily after older brother Jeffrey (he is going as Herbie Beanstock) ridicules her ghost costume and then scorns her ideas of going as a witch or a monster--too many other little kids, says Herbie, will be witches, ghosts, or monsters. At last Emily gets an original idea: she'll go as a bunch of grapes. Figuring out how to do it is harder, and readers might at first agree with Jeffrey, who comes into her room on the night of the party and announces that ""wearing a brown paper bag painted purple does not make you a bunch of grapes."" But when five of Emily's friends show up in identical paper bags, even Jeffrey has to admit that ""wearing a brown paper bag painted purple does make you a bunch of grapes when you have other grapes in your bunch."" Not a bad idea--and Numeroff illustrates it with unobtrusive wit. Try it on an October audience and they might come up with others.