ONE LITTLE KITTEN

One Little Kitten goes Over, Under & Through, as it were. And to the extent that it's natural for a kitten to be getting into new, tight places, there's nothing wrong with that—especially since the experiences are also vicarious ones for tots. But the best photo-sequence in this very, very young book features, kittenishly, a big paper bag—from which we see the kitten stealthily emerging (first paws, then an eye. . .) in three, successive shots. We're also invited, more conventionally, to laugh at the kitten s antics: "A funny place/to put my face" is the inside of a running shoe (where, in all likelihood, the kitten was having a whiff of a sniff). The rhyming text is defensible as a come-on/carry-through for the very young (if on no other grounds); and, indeed, what the book as a whole lacks in imagination, it compensates for by sticking to business—the kitten is as good as life-size on these pages, and it is adorable.