WHEELS

Just about the least inventive, least rewarding treatment of the subject imaginable: even the pictures aren't worth looking at. "A long time ago there were no wheels anywhere," the text begins, and then goes on to introduce beasts of burden, sleds (more properly called sledges), rollers (identified only as logs), and a curious hybrid without historical foundation before reaching a rudimentary wheel-and-axle (the latter also unnamed). "Other people saw the wheels. They liked the idea. And they, too, made wheels for their carts." There follows a procession of wheeled vehicles that fills the second half of the book in such a lackadaisical manner that even the simple sentences are susceptible of misconstruction: "There were wheels for carriages with roofs to keep out the rain. . . ." Useless.