DANCE!
by Ward Schumaker & illustrated by Ward Schumaker
Schumaker, working in the same style and palette as found in his illustrations for Vivian Sathre's Mouse Chase (1995), gives pig, dogs, and cat center stage. At first the festivities seem to be led by a pig, but he soon fades into the rest of the lithe shapes and airy, twirling lines. ``I want to dance/dance in a mask/dance in the air/dance in a tutu/dance at the fair/I want to dance!'' The text offers some syncopation, but the rhymes start out loud and stay loud; the text has no direction, builds to no climax, and stops, abruptly, when the dancers nap. Pleasant, but flat- footed. (Picture book. 3-8)