TERRIBLE THINGS COULD HAPPEN

Terrible things do happen to Waldo, who delivers pies for the Crust and Flake Company and is reminded daily by his immediate boss, Mr. Grickle, that ""if you eat any pie, my nephew will have your job."" Waldo doesn't eat any pie but he almost loses his wares each time out: one day, chased by five hungry ""grisly gardeners,"" he stumbles and drops the pies; the next day he bails out of a delivery plane as the pies tumble down around him; and the day after that he and the pies are washed overboard in a delivery by dinghy. Each time, the pies are spectacularly recovered--but Waldo is finally fired for losing a truckload of them in a collision during a delivery to Bertha's Beanery right next door. Given Waldo's luck, readers won't be surprised to see him capture two safe-robbers at Crust and Flake that very night--and end up, for reward, as President of the company. It's a plot to match Delaney's hyperkinetic cartoons, where animal characters (Waldo's a dog) awash in cupcakes tear around against wobbly backdrops and silly machines. For those who respond to his brand of ruckus activity, it's as broad and hectic as ever.