CAMEL CARAVAN

There's a long tradition of stories about various forms of transport running amok, from Virginia Lee Burton's Choo Choo and Hardie Gramatky's Little Toot to some of W. Awdry's stories about Thomas the Tank Engine. Now comes a somewhat unusual entry in the genre from Roberts (The Two O'Clock Secret, 1993, etc.) and Hubbell, about five uncooperative camels who abruptly abandon their desert caravan (``Hot! Dry!/Dusty! Slow!/Grump,/GRUMP,/GRUMP!''), leave their sleeping drivers in the lurch, and sneak off in search of easier ways to travel. They try a boxcar, bicycles, a bus, a boat, a truck, and an airplane before parachuting back into the desert, where their overjoyed owners welcome them affectionately. All this silliness provides just the excuse to drag in nearly every English word ending in ump—and what a satisfying, camel-y sound those words make when repeated by a chorus of young voices! It's also the perfect occasion for some inspired looniness in the cut- paper and pastel illustrations. Taylor has gotten the camels' expressions of imperturbable, supercilious hauteur exactly right, making it all the funnier when they lose it. (Picture book. 4-7)