JUMPETY-BUMPETY HOP

This enjoyably eclectic gathering of poems sports a good range of styles, tempos, and moods. A few are long, most are short (William Cole's ``That handsome little chimpanzee/Looks very much like you—or me!''); some rhyme, some are pure nonsense, one is a limerick; there are poems that amble while others are succinct, as in Onitsura's haiku: `` `Please don't go,' I called/but the fireflies flashed away/deep into darkness.'' Chorao (The Book of Giving, 1995, etc.) includes material from around the globe—the Caribbean, Eastern Europe— and finds room for old favorites from Beatrix Potter, Mary Mapes Dodge, Herbert Asquith, Ogden Nash, William Wordsworth, and William Blake, among others. All the poems have been illustrated with Chorao's cuddly art, a style that works well with simpler pieces but is less suitable when paired with more sophisticated works. (Picture book/poetry. 3-7)