EEEEEEK!; PIRATES, PIRATES, OVER THE SALT, SALT SEA

The pictures tell most of the story in these very early readers which contain only ten often-repeated words per volume. Eeeeeek! shows a lynx out stalking, catching, and bagging the three ingredients he needs for a ""Fox and Hare and Woodpecker stew,"" all the time repeating the name of the dish in varying order and lip-licking anticipation. But then he naps and the woodpecker pecks the three animals' way out of the sack. Pirates. . . repeats variations of ""Come sailing over the salt salt sea""--first when a rabbit in old Nantucket garb invites a group of similarly dressed rodents for a boat ride, then when a whale gives them all a friendly sleighride, and again when the whale tows the group home after saving them from attacking pirates. Delaney's basic cartoons along with the story's folk origin may give Eeeeeek! the minimal appeal needed to accomplish the intended pedagogic function, but as the Pirate. . . story has no point and the pictures no personality, that repeated refrain just doesn't carry.