MOO MOO, BROWN COW

``Baa baa, black sheep, have you any lambs? Yes kitty, yes kitty, two woolly lambs.'' From one brown cow to ten rainbow trout fry, Wood rehearses numbers, colors, and animals' names and voices in a repetitive text that will help young listeners learn, though it is not particularly imaginative. In the double spread illustrations, on the other hand, Bonner takes some unusual risks: the colors of his animals are strikingly close to their background—e.g., the orange hen and her yellow chicks are superimposed on a pale orange that might be derived by mixing the two. The result is arrestingly monochromatic compositions in which the animals are still recognizable and pleasingly lively. The appealing kitten who asks the questions ties it all together. Nice. (Picture book. 1-6)