AN APPLE TO EAT OR CROSS THE STREET

. . . or, more accurately, not to cross the street, since the red apple on Weissman's traffic light replaces the ""stop"" light, whereas the ""go"" sign is a plain green disc. An apple, Weissman shows on the same laff-forcing cartoon page, could be used ""to bowl with"" or ""to live in""--as the pink worm does here in his rocker by a fireplace. On each double-page Weissman first sets down some real uses for the object in question (an apple can be to eat, to bake a pie, ""to keep you-know-who away"") and then the fanciful or nutty ones. A glove (shown as a bird's foot or a cow's udder, among other uses), a crayon (rocket, candle, cannon, etc.--all pretty obvious), and a spoon (oar, sand shovel, tennis racket, tadpole) are some of the other objects so treated. Weissman ends with a thanks to Magritte for inspiration, but you won't find any of Magritte's unsettling incongruity here--or for that matter, any of the childlike playfulness of that classic Kraus/Sendak exploration of function, A Hole Is to Dig.