GUS AND GRANDPA

The relationship between seven-year-old Gus and his buddy, Grandpa, is at the core of the first of a proposed series of easy readers from Mills (Losers, Inc., p. 144, etc.). Each of three short episodes about ordinary events stands alone, but they are neatly tied together at the end. ``The Great Dog Trainer'' is a mildly humorous tale of Gus's short-lived fantasy to turn his dog, Skipper, into a circus act. In ``The Lost Car,'' Grandpa and Gus go shopping and emerge to find the car ``missing''—they've forgotten where they parked. The gifts they exchange in ``The Birthday Party'' come with winks that only they understand. One-syllable words and short sentences mark this out for the genre and the genial watercolor illustrations are a welcome break from the cartoon drawings usually associated with the formula. The characters interact with real warmth, but they are bland, lacking the personality of most of Mills's characters, and without any of the sparkle of Henry and Mudge. (Fiction. 6-8)