BIG, SCARY WOLF

``Rose couldn't sleep. She lay in bed with her eyes open''- -because the shadows are moving and a wolf seems to be lurking behind her toy box. Her terror sends her flying into her parents' room in an amusing spread. Papa's tactic to rid Rose of her fear is to suggest that the wolf would not want to be inside their house, and the two of them imagine several scenarios the wolf would not like: brushing its teeth, clipping its nails, beribboning its hair. Rose drifts off to sleep, convinced that the wolf would prefer to be ``playing outside with his friends, under the stars.'' With so many entries in the something's-in-my- room genre, it's hard to make the case for this one. Stevenson (Grandpa's House, 1994, etc.) uses a palette of green, purple, and blue to create a spooky atmosphere, which evaporates as soon as the wolf comes into the light, and rendering its scariness— and its preference for staying in or out—moot. (Picture book. 3-6)