I AM FIVE

In a sketchbook style, a scraggly, tangle-haired, kind of fat, and quite expressive little girl acts out a self-portrait. "Sometimes I want to kick everybody," she says, looking mean, and, in a different mood, "Sometimes I pretend to laugh, just to hear myself." A publisher's note says that the dummy for this book was found after the author's death, along with three unfinished ones—I Am Three, . . . . Four, and . . . Six—to be published later. Hallmark cards might be a more appropriate outlet for the series—and for Fitzhugh's corny ending here: "That's all about me. . . . And what are you like?" But you couldn't accuse the pictured child of being greeting-card pretty—and her pesky energy does make itself felt.