BIRDS, FROGS, AND MOONLIGHT

More haiku for young children, this time with a triple-threat text: in Japanese characters, in transliteration to Roman letters, in translation to English. Some of the poems bring a quick smile--""A discovery!/ On my frog's smooth, green belly/ there sits no button;"" Others suggest a strange image-- ""Above the chorus,/ listen! A single cricket/ shakes a golden bell""--or call for contemplation. The selections generally have a nice easy relation to children's responses, and should succeed. We're not so sure about the two-color illustrations, which are quite sophisticated and sometimes indistinct; they don't evoke immediate admiration but then they don't overbalance the text--a toss-up. The added attraction, of course, is the chance to see and say Japanese.