LITTLE HOBBIN

Little Hobbin loves to be pushed around the room in his crib on wheels. ""More, more,"" he commands his mother until she falls in bed exhausted. He concocts a sail from his nightshirt, rides a moonbeam out of his room, and goes for a tour of the world, all the while urging the Moon, his guide, to keep on shining--""More, more."" Finally the Moon bids Hobbin farewell, whereupon Hobbin, now in the dark, fares not at all well, finding himself in a rather desperate pickle. ""That's when you and I came to the rescue. . . . If we hadn't saved him, he might well have drowned."" Storm's classic cautionary tale about the consequences of excess isn't soft-peddled, but Hobbin is such a typical toddler that readers will root for him despite themselves. Zwerger's masterful, delicate watercolors give the tale just the right measure of dreamy suspense in a 19th-century setting.