MR. SIMKIN'S GRANDMA

A Grandma turns up on the Simkins' doorstep, insists that she is Mr. Simkins' though he says he never had a Grandma, and settles into his easy chair--from which she can't be dislodged though the Simkins place an ad and then put her on television in hopes of finding her rightful family. Finally she does leave in a huff when a strange Grandpa wanders in and settles down in the other chair--which outcome leaves Mr. S. to his own chair and the comment that the new grandparent is ""an improvement on the last one."" One sympathizes with the illustrator, whose job it is to turn this simple silly-joke into a picture book. Lustig fills it out by filling the Simkin home with a couple of pudgy, pesky tykes and an accident-prone domestic menagerie (which includes several mice), but very little of what she pictures has anything to do with the story.