THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER'S LUNCH

This began, we're told on the jacket flap, with a question from the authors' little boy, ""and some light hearted answers"" from his father, about the cable running from land to a lighthouse. Unfortunately the Armitages haven't taken it far beyond that level, for once they've set up the situation--the lighthouse keeper's wife uses the wire to send her husband his lunch in a basket--they don't come up with much of a story, only a mini-dilemma when seagulls begin to shortstop the lunch en route. Neither tying a napkin over the food nor sending the cat along to guard it proves sufficient protection (Hamish the cat is too airsick to notice the gulls), but finally two straight days of mustard sandwiches send the birds off to raid a fisherman's lunch box instead. David Armitage's heavy, black-outlined paintings seem to try harder--maybe too hard. Some come off; others appear designed to put you off.