GROWN-UPS GET TO DO ALL THE DRIVING

Required reading for all children who have ever grumbled that "grownups get to have all the fun." Once they realize, through this litany, that "grown-ups have aches and pains. . . . can take out their teeth . . . snore . . . get headaches . . . wrinkles" and ". . . take a lot of pills," they may want to stay children forever. Adults are also "mean . . . rude . . . cheapskates" who "hate to pay their taxes" but "like to punish people." Steig moderates his venting in the full-page cartoons, rendered with characteristic simplicity; the grownups are seen as slightly foolish figures whose foibles amuse — or only slightly annoy — the children around them. Reductio ad absurdum, of course, and if the relentlessness of the mockery grates, the clever ways the illustrations elaborate on the generalizations should elicit a few chuckles. Even minor Steig is memorable. (Picture book. 5-7)