POSSUM COME A-KNOCKIN'

When sly, top-hatted possum raps at the moonlit door, only three of the busy family seen through the window notice: hound, cat, and a small child. Meanwhile, as described in exuberant verse, ""Pappy was a-whittlin',/makin' play toys for the baby . . .Sis was tossin' Baby/while Pappy was a-whittlin'""--all cheerfully oblivious to the ruckus outside Booth, whose comically dour characters are familiar to New Yorker readers, extends the story with several pictorial mini-dramas: the dance between the hanging light bulb and Brother's wayward fish line; the hound's mounting aggravation; the possum's mischievous retreat when Pa finally opens the door. High-spirited, imaginative fun.