DOCTOR SHAWN

A bandage for you, sir?"" asks pretend Doctor Shawn while his sister, playing nurse, says to younger Josephine, ""Let me comb your hair while you wait for the doctor."" Playing doctor gets a little messy with the cat knocking over the doll's crib and Shawn dispensing sliced banana pills, but then Mom comes home from shopping and serves lunch -- so that even though Shawn's sister has mentioned that she was doctor last time, what you see here (in Lloyd's paintings of shiny brown faces against outlined slabs of chalky bright color) is females playing their traditional helping roles. And there's not much else to see at any level, which only confirms our belief (as the same pair's Shawn Goes to School was a ""highly commended"" Kate Greenaway runner-up) in the overwhelming superiority of American picture book illustration.