MEET POSY BATES
by Helen Cresswell & illustrated by Kate Aldous
A disappointing early chapter book from a gifted humorist (the popular Bagthorpe books, etc). Posy, eight, yearns for a pet but makes do with ``creepy crawlies,'' like a pair of spiders she keeps in a jar and the fleas she hopes to find on a hedgehog she brings in from the garden. Her mother, preoccupied with baby Fred, wants none of them. There are some encounters with a hungry bag-lady before Posy throws a pet show that, as such, is a fiasco, but does bring her a stray dog that ``Mom'' says she may keep. Posy, imaginative and in need of attention, is drawn adroitly but from a rather adult point of view and in an ironic style that's as thoroughly British as the fabric of Posy's life (in which context ``Mom'' is ludicrous); many American readers Posy's age will find her story hard to follow, its events fairly predictable. Still, readers who enjoy King-Smith's more engaging Sophie's Snail (1989), with its similar theme and audience, might also warm to Posy. Illustrations not seen. (Fiction. 7-9)