BOOGIE BONES

Boogie Bones just loves to dance, hardly slowed by his condition: He is a skeleton who lives in a graveyard. When he hears about a dance competition, his fellows hide his bones in an old tuxedo and off he goes. He gets through the tango fine, but when the band begins to play his favorite tune for doing the lindy hop, the clothes fly off to reveal the skeleton. A young girl with Boogie's cap over her braids is unafraid, and they dance ``until her braids were a blur and her skirt spread like a blossom.'' Rich colors and broad humor characterize the rollicking, completely unscary pictures; each spread captures something of the movement and joy of dance. Exceptionally silly. (Picture book. 5-8)