Large as Life

``Ladybug, ladybug, where are you going?'' begins this ebullient, practically wordless romp. The deceptively simple concept book juxtaposes the tiny ladybug with--for the most part--increasingly large animals over a succession of brilliantly colored spreads. Youngsters searching for the peripatetic beetle will encounter a variety of animals in their native habitats--whether in the treetops or below the sea. The ever-present ladybug slyly offers eager explorers an awareness of scale and a sense of the relative size of each animal, from butterfly to blue whale. In Finzel's first book, her art is dazzlingly bold and fairly bursts from the pages. This slightly oversize volume cannot begin to contain the enormity of some of its creatures; often emblematic portions are revealed instead--a gray, sturdy elephant foot; the curved, searching tip of a trunk. An exhilarating excursion. Ages 3-up. (Oct.)