GEORGE AND MARTHA TONS OF FUN

Misunderstandings, twinges of guilt, petty deceptions, and the loss of a birthday gift are winningly overcome in this latest set of five brief tales about Marshall's ludicrously buoyant hippos. Marshall must have had great fun dreaming up poses for the two: George in fuzzy slippers raiding the refrigerator, Martha smoking an ugly cigar as a counter to his overeating, Martha eating up all the cookies while perched atop the repentant George, the two of them overhanging the seat of a playground merry-go-round. Best of all is the photography-booth photo Martha has taken in story number three. "I've never looked prettier," says Martha of the odd, cut-off snout shot. But the last story ends with her joining George in a laugh at the picture. "She saw that the photograph was pretty funny after all"—a concession that pretty well illustrates why this picture-book friendship endures.