ONE LITTLE CHICKADEE

Things start quietly in this happy rhyming story, with one little chickadee, alone in a tree. The bird is lonesome at first, but he is soon joined by more and more young animals (warbling cockatoos, curious kittens, whooping puppies, even some gamboling ponies and romping hippos). The new friends chatter and yap together, causing quite a ruckus, until ``a vexed crowd of moms'' (who aren't angry, but worried about all the noise) gather up their young, take them home and tuck them in, leaving one content, tired chickadee ``in his bed, in his tree.'' Street's lively, folk-art- inspired illustrations do a wonderful job of building upon Burton's (My Best Shoes, p. 772, etc.) text, which seems to cackle and sing along with its characters. This book is as much fun to look at as it is to read. A joyous bedtime counting book. (Fiction/Picture book. 3+)