BY MYSELF

This begins unpromisingly, weighted with flat, prosaic verses about children's imaginative musings: Bette Killian's child thinks of fast things when Mother says ""go quickly"" (why not ""hurry""?), still things when told to shush, and lazy things when told to slow down. Nancy Dingman Watson's scolded child hides out ""Up in the Pine"" till Dad comes and makes it okay. Two authors--Stacy Jo Crossen and Natalie Anne Crowell--put together a boy dreaming at school, wishing to be ""Down away/ Out away/ Fly out of school,"" but concluding that ""It's good to be/ Here sometimes."" Soon, though, we shift to shorter, more direct, and somewhat sharper examples of children's perceptions: Joanna Cole on ""Driving to the Beach,"" Lilian Moore on first seeing the sea, Florence Parry Heide's three lines on ""Rocks."" For the rest, there are contributions from the familiar poets for children--Thurman, McCord (""The Star in the Pail"" and ""Gone""), Zolotow, Livingston, Holman, Kuskin, and Hopkins himself. A predictable collection then, with just 16 entries in all.