Ten Little Circus Mice

Essentially flat-footed, this count-down book gamely tries to redeem itself via especially frisky illustrations. Ten little circus mice cavort on a wall; one by one each takes ``a great big fall.'' The pictures, in vibrant (chiefly) tertiary colors, are full of motion and wiggle lines, showing not only the mice's escapades (juggling, flying from cannons, dancing) but the action across the street, where birds twitter on a clothesline as a mouse hangs out laundry from a second-story window and a mouse baby wanders in and out of the front door with various distractions. The text, however, consists of amateurish verse describing the temporary demise of each mouse. Rhymes are uninspired (wall / tall / small / all) and repetitious; the three-ring-circus quality of the pictures is no more than a sideshow to an ultimately dull story. A much more captivating example of the same motif can be found in John Richardson's pop-up Ten Bears in a Bed. Ages 2-5. (Apr.)