WOODCHUCK NATION

While the woodchuck family waits in a meadow wondering whether anyone else will show up for the reunion, Daddy tells his kids about the fabulous Woodchuck Festival 25 years ago, when such luminaries as Rabbit Shankar and ``that web-footed wonder of psychedelic guitar, Jimi Hendrake'' played for a crowd so huge that he and his pals Digger and Macra-May decided to park their van and hike in through the Cat Skull Mountains. As parody, the reprise of the celebration of ``paws and love'' will make less sense to today's children than to their elders (now about to be grandparents), who are sure to delight in the comical new settings for catch phrases like ``This is really messing up my head'' or ``It's the ultimate love-in!'' Still, kids will enjoy the feel-good story with its surprise ``Hippie birthday'' denouement and Buller's cheerfully laid-back cartoon-style illustrations of the flower-chucks and the concluding reunion, when Digger turns up in a sleek RV with an ``O-WOW'' license number and a ``Liberate Toad Hall'' bumper sticker. Clever and fun. (Picture book. 5+)