The Way It Happened

The childhood game, called ``gossip,'' ``telephone'' or ``rumors,'' where one child whispers a message to another and that child to another, until the story is greatly distorted, seems to have inspired this funny story which deals with miscommunication. Sarah tells her friend Mike that she fell off her bike. Mike in turn, tells his father that Sarah can't ride her bikethe story passes from person to person until the whole town wrongly believes that Mike stole Sarah's bike. Pursued by bakers and other townfolk, Mike bumps into a tree and tells Sarah, ``I fell off my bike''and the story presumably starts all over again. The artist's punchy pictures in watercolor and ink add to the good-humored antics of the story. Zemke's first book for children is a fast-paced and jolly contribution. Ages 4-8. (September)