OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOOD

Catrow (illustrator of Kathryn Lasky's She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!, 1995) provides a pictorially updated interpretation of the journey to the grandparents' house made famous by Child's song. Instead of the sleigh, the family tools off in a minivan from which the baby soon escapes into the chaos of the Thanksgiving Day parade. She gets bumped off a horse (``As over the ground we go''), lands in a tuba, gets blatted out into the hands of an organ grinder's ape, and attaches herself to a giant runaway alligator balloon, parachuting down to the grandparents' just as her family rolls in. It is a madcap pilgrimage, and Catrow's illustrations are a whirl of incident and amusing detail, but the deliberate contrast between old-fashioned lyrics and contemporary scenes never really takes hold, making it more confusing than funny. Preschoolers will find the pictures hard to read—the baby is difficult to find—and her misadventures will alarm more literal-minded toddlers. (Picture book. 4-8)