BENJAMIN'S BUGS

A small, sweet book that describes, with disarming simplicity, a little porcupine's adventures on a walk with his mama, a motherly animal person who much resembles Mrs. Tiggy Winkle. Benjamin talks to an ant; has trouble getting out of a tree he's climbed; considers bugs under rocks and chirping crickets; and then, reaching for a whirligig, tumbles into a pond. Mama jumps in to save him, and ``all the pond critters clapped and cheered.'' Morgan's oval watercolors include dozens of appealing details, some of which escape their soft boundaries to add interest to the generous white space. With its delicate grounding in the real behavior of its humanized animals, this is a charming Beatrix Potter descendant, a perfect stepping stone to Potter's more demanding texts. (Picture book. 1-6)