Splash, Splash

The attractive design of this picture book almost makes up for its wishy-washy rhyming text. Cut-paper illustrations show a number of animals as each takes an unanticipated jump in the lake: ``A dog fell in the water. / You know what he did then? / He liked it soooo much / that he fell in again!'' To the right of each pictured splashdown is a column of three smaller pictures of the animal in mid-paddle, along with captions to contribute the sound effects (e.g., ``Dog says: ruff, splash, ruff, splash, ruff''). Panek ( A Rhinoceros Wakes Me Up in the Morning ) provides the focal point here: tidy compositions of cut papers which have been hand-colored and then assembled in such a fashion as to suggest the textures of fur, water, hide. Ages 2-5. (Apr.)