BAD BABY BROTHER

An adequate look at the arrival of a baby brother, told from a precocious older sister's perspective. Willy is ``very new and very sleepy.'' He doesn't know how to look at a book, play with a doll, dress up for Halloween or help fix Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, Tessa thinks Willy is messy and cries a lot and does terrible things like suck Dolly's toe. All the common feelings of anger, frustration, jealousy, and the need for attention associated with a new sibling are touched on in Tessa's realistic relationship with Willy. ``I am very tired of babies,'' she says, attempting to articulate her confusion (her face and posture, however, are far more expressive than mere words). All is well in babyland, when her mother comes to the rescue with a reassuring hug for the big girl and the promise of reading a book together. It's a fairly standard ending to a typical tale of sibling discord, fluidly paced but still too familiar. Weston (Bea's 4 Bears, 1992, etc.) emphasizes the older sister's concerns by inserting dialogue into the frames of watercolor and colored-pencil pictures. (Picture book. 2-4)