The Adventures of Christabel Crocodile

Poking around for something to do on a slow Sunday morning at the zoo, little Christabel accidentally pulls the plug from the crocodile pool. She is whisked off into the sewer, where an enterprising rat and his mother befriend her and guide her back home. The bare-bones story line stumbles occasionally over clunky translations (``missed a number out'' instead of ``left a number out''; ``anticlockwise'' instead of ``counterclockwise''), and the ending has obviously been engineered to pave the way for sequels. Nevertheless, fetchingly plump Christabel is a genial heroine, and first-time author/artist Knuppel serves up her cheery, cartoon-like illustrations with plenty of pizzazz. Ages 3-8. (June)