IS ANYONE THERE?

An undistinguished attempt to help a child make the transition from playtime to bedtime. On each page an awkwardly rhymed verse asks the title question, becoming a guessing game as a young child identifies familiar objects, animals and people, outdoors and around the house, ending up with his teddy in bed. The watercolor illustrations have a bland, washed-out quality; the human figures are clumsily drawn. There are some nice touches--coziness prevails as an apron-clad father prepares dinner while mother breast-feeds a new baby--but they don't overcome the book's overall pedestrian effect.