AFRICAN ANIMALS ABC

Newcomer Browne goes on an intrepid alphabet safari, with big and beautiful pictures of wild things in the wild woods, painted in a fauve palette. The two- to six-word descriptions``Antbear naps,'' ``Bushbaby blinks,'' ``Crocodile snaps,'' ``Dassie drinks''appear below ever-so-slightly stylized animals (amphibian, bird, mammal, or insect), each of which fills up the whole page. Around it is a bright and wildly colorful landscape, filled with pulsating brushstrokes and patterns and framed by a black outline. At the end of the book are paragraph-long notes on each animal with vital statistics for those who want to learn more. The union of animals and the alphabet is already a fundamentally happy one, but Browne makes them look made for each other. (Picture book. 3-7)