DOUBLE DOG DARE

A while after Eddie finds a quarter but Rudy drops the ice cream cone he buys with it, the two find themselves up a tree with a mean looking bulldog at the bottom. The incident ends, as it begins, with ice cream -- a reward that is scaled to the everyday nature of the story, just as Prather's illustrations, less individualized than in his picture books, are softened to fit the utilitarian nature of the easy reading genre. For beginners who prefer a recognizable situation to talking animals and such -- or for primary grade teachers looking for supplementary readers with black characters.