LOST IN THE MUSEUM

When our old friends in Cohen's first-grade class go to the museum, Danny splits to see the dinosaur and is followed by Jim, Willy, Sammy, Paul, and George--and Cohen puts down the girls again (as in Tough Jim, 1974) by having Anna Marie and Sara start after them calling ""Come back! You'll get lost!"" Jim does get them all lost when he bolts in fear before the tyrannosaurus, but later, when he finds the teacher on his own, he wins the other children's ""Jim was brave! He went to find you!"" Cohen makes the least of the experience with the teacher's ""Yes, Jim was very brave. But next time, remember--IF WE ALL STAY TOGETHER, NOBODY WILL GET LOST."" But while we're on that level, we might just as well question why any teacher would take a whole first-grade class to the museum without an adult helper. Hoban's chipmunk-cheeked children are as appealing as ever and her double-page views of Jim alone under a vast gray whale are wonderfully expressive. But Cohen does have a tendency to overemphasize the lesson, while her continued stereotyping of the little girls speaks for itself.