ANIMAL PARADE

Why have just one animal for each letter? Wood's alphabet has as many as five marching across her broad spreads, captioned only with their names plus the letters themselves in sans-serif resembling the style children are first taught to ``print.'' The animals interact in the cheerful procession: a chimpanzee admires the caterpillar on his palm; a hamster rides on a hippo, peering back at the giraffe whose head reaches over from the page before. Such links add a guessing game to the fun (the spotted tail at the far right of the ``I'' page belongs to what animal beginning with ``J''?); a wordless endpaper recapitulation provides a chance to recall the names and look for minor differences in position. The simple, delicately drawn animals, brightly colored in watercolor, have a vivacity and humor that are altogether charming, yet they're also realistic and recognizable. Unusually attractive. (Picture book. 1-7)