WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS BOOK?

McGuire (What Goes Around Comes Around, 1995, etc.) sweeps out his graphic arts playhouse for a scrapbook of conundrums, collages, and shadow plays. Swiping a historical reference to Peter Newell's The Hole Book, the opening pages have holes that become--in the turn of the page--peepholes, heads, noses, and a baby's open mouth. McGuire then switches over to shadow play, displaying the shadow of an elephant in one case, a dinosaur in another, neither of which is what it seems to be. He throws in a few topsy-turvy puzzle faces, and then switches to construction paper collages, surreal landscapes where a lobster smokes a pipe, an eyeball adorns a flowering apple tree, and a squirrel on a branch sprouts antlers. Another hole leads the book to its finish, an upside-down mirror-image of the title page. The illustrations are dandy, with compositions that must be pored over even though they never intertwine with the text; this is a collection of intriguing pictures rather than story carried and complemented by images.