STAND BACK,"" SAID THE ELEPHANT, ""I'M GOING TO SNEEZE!

Not only are all kinds of creatures amassed in one jungle-type kingdom, but each one can rhyme. And they do so (without the aplomb of a Seuss, though), as soon as the elephant warns them: ""I hate to alarm you,/ But I don't wish to harm you./ My friends, I fear/ It's clear. . ./ Oh, dear,/ You'd better stand back, I'm going to sneeze."" The monkeys, the buffalo, parrots, and bees worry, as does the bear: ""The last time he sneezed he blew off all my hair/ And left me so bare/ I spent the whole winter in long underwear./ Nothing's so sad as a bear that is bare."" Etcetera for too long until ""I can't stop./ I would/ If I could,/ But there's nothing to do. . . ./ Ah. . ./ Ah. . . ."" BOO! shouts a mouse -- and the sneeze is forestalled; but all the havoc promised now is generated by the elephant's giggles at the joke on him. Then limply, ""if you must laugh, laugh softly./ Oh, elephant, please!"" Amiably insouciant despite the bumpy verse and the chaotic drawings, alternately colored and black-and-white; a do-it-yourself job of streamlining (skip half the plaints) could be partly redemptive.