WEBSTER AND ARNOLD AND THE GIANT BOX

Well-worn material, put together with empathy and imagination. Webster and Arnold, the little mouse brothers of Good-bye, Arnold! (p. 4), find a ""giant box"" (a cardboard packing easel and make it, during the course of the story, a caveman's cave, a train in Africa, a restaurant where they have their lunch, a rocket, and a submarine. Their play. illustrated with charming forays into the imagined settings, is interrupted by spats and splits occasioned by Arnold's bossiness or Webster's obstreperous resistance. By the end, Arnold is berating his younger brother for messing up the box--but then Webster conies through with a final use, a slide, which the two of them create by jumping on the box till it's flat. Engaging.