NEVER TAKE A PIG TO LUNCH

There isn't a child on earth who won't sample, snack, and nibble with delight at this delicious smorgasbord of more than 60 poems. A first course on eating ``silly'' things (Nash's ``Eels''; Livingston's ``O Sliver of Liver'') is followed by a section on eating things ``we like'' (``We All Scream for Ice Cream''; Prelutsky's ``Fudge''). Gobble up a group on eating too much (Ciardi's ``Betty Bopper'') and another on table manners (Burgess's Goops show up here, as does the title poem). Meanwhile, Westcott's zany children, animals, and food race riotously across the pages; the gusto with which these pint-size epicureans take to their tasks is contagious. A wish: that one positive poem had countered the two negative ones about the difficulty of eating with chopsticks, if only because children don't always read the difference between laughing ``at'' and laughing ``with.'' Still, three-star attention to detail coupled with four-star appeal. Index. (Poetry. 6-11)