MISS BUTTERPAT GOES WILD!

Curled up in the teachers' room with her knitting and tea, Miss Cushy Butterpat is the epitome of dull; when she tells her class that, during vacation, she ``might stow away on a ship to South America, explore the jungle, live with a tribe of Indians, canoe down the river...'', they say, ``You do tell whoppers.'' But that's what she does, though her adventures, which comprise most of the book, are even more exciting, especially in Chamberlain's lively, cartoony illustrations. After a first-class journey home on a luxury liner, paid for with poker winnings from a wicked, pistol-packing bandit, Miss Butterpat goes back to school, where the other teachers don't bother to ask what she's been doing and her pupils don't believe her tale. One of two entries in the new Teachers' Secrets series (Jackie Vivelo's Mr. Scatter's Magic Spell, ISBN: 1-56458-201-9, is about an absent- minded teacher/magician), this is light fare that's liable to amuse primary-grade readers even if they don't take the comically exaggerated message about teachers to heart. (Young reader/Picture book. 5-9)