THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

An imaginatively silly premise is spun into an entertaining spoof by an accomplished illustrator and an author new to children's books. Three cowboys (one female) and a furry black dog catch ``one'' on their ``first day out.'' The one, a chunky geometric numeral, fights back with its spindly arms and legs and bares its teeth in a fierce grimace, but is duly corralled to be photographed and admired. Then, in a comic variant of Picasso's Guernica, a whole herd of ones (different sizes and colors but recognizably of the same species) are rounded up to join the first. In the night, the tall fuchsia one escapes; while his captors are out looking for him, the rest undergo an unexpected but logical transformation. It's sort of a one-joke story; on the other hand, the amusingly clever text effectively draws attention to the possible ambiguity of even the simplest of words, while Zimmer's realizations of the preposterous events are colorful, authoritatively drawn, and wonderfully funny. A novel idea, developed with high style and wit. (Picture book. 6-9)