LOOKING FOR LUCAS

Looking for Lucas may not be much of a story but it certainly is good looking. The wildest chase since The Red Carpet roiled through town features three grimy tykes with a battered birdcage and a bird who's a cross between a clothesbrush and an ink-blot. But smart: flying from the children, he sweeps out the chimneys so fast that the sky and the streets turn gray, then helps the firemen clean up by pecking their hoses into sprinklers. He takes off when the firemen's band begins to play, turns up in time to retrieve the mayor's grandest hat from the town-hall steeple. As a reward, the mayor presents Peter, one of the pursuers, with an apple for Lucas, and Lucas accepts the children's invitation to live in the (unenclosed) cage. The events are kind of accidental but the wacky, whirlwind illustrations carry them along and spanking colors pick up the details.