Stick Horse

A towheaded Midwestern farm boy finds an unusual-looking stick horse on his lawn in this wordless fantasy. He mounts it, and the horse shoots up into the air, taking its rider on increasingly farflung journeys. By pressing a series of buttons on his steed, the boy sees such famous landmarks as Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty, goes to the moon and finally travels back to the age of the dinosaurs. After the stick horse wards off a pterodactyl with bolts of electricity, the boy emphatically pushes the button for home. Meanwhile, a Spock-like young man reclaims the horse and returns to the future. Though Raney's realistic but somewhat subdued paintings, penciled lightly on colored paper, have a stylish, almost ethereal quality, they don't seem to mesh with the slight story line and ultimately prevent the book from really taking off. Youngsters will certainly want to see more substantive fare from this gifted and imaginative artist. Ages 3-6. (Oct.)