cover image Bounce Bounce Bounce: A Lap Game Book for Babies

Bounce Bounce Bounce: A Lap Game Book for Babies

Kathy Henderson. Candlewick Press (MA), $9.95 (24pp) ISBN 978-1-56402-311-7

Modest and affable, these companion volumes suggest rambunctious activities for the youngest set. (Parents, however, may find a few of the scenarios a bit too energetic, as when a youngster beats out a kitchen-utensil symphony--``Crash crash crash!'') A familiar activity/object is noted on each verso page (``Beds are for lying on''), while a nimble tot capers opposite (``Dance dance dance!''). Bumpety 's actions, which center on a baby girl, are all relative-related (``She rode on her grandpa's knee, a-tumpety-tumpety-tump!''), while the boy in Bounce performs solo gyrations. Thompson's sketchy watercolors exude the proper playfulness, though her protagonists frequently seem to be older than their movements would indicate. In both titles, little ones will enjoy the antics of the stuffed-toy creatures cavorting on each page's single horizontal border--above the text in Bounce , below it in Bumpety . Ages 2-up. (Apr.)