BABY DANCED THE POLKA

The toddler and nursery-school sets will delightedly clap and cavort in step with this wide-awake baby, who boogies with a succession of toy animals rather than settle down to sleep. Plecas’s cartoon scenes of young parents in a cozy country home, patiently corralling their exuberant offspring again and again, make inviting backgrounds for an infectious rhyme, modeled on “The lady with the alligator purse,” and with easily guessable punch lines hidden beneath small gatefolds: “While Papa hauled the water / And Mama fixed the chow / Baby danced the cha-cha / With the chocolate-colored . . . COW. / Whoa! Papa’s water! / Whoa! Mama’s chow! / ‘Go!’ Baby giggled with the chocolate-colored cow.” Mama and Papa eventually throw in the towel, and dance along until the setting sun sends Baby at last to dancing dreams. Don’t even try to sit still with this one. (Picture book. 3-5)