Arnold Always Answers

Arnold's mother peppers him with questions in this dynamic concept book. ``Awake or asleep?'' she asks; Arnold, jumping out of bed, says, ``Awake!'' Antonyms telegraph various choices: ``Hot or cold?'' turns out to refer to breakfast cereals, ``High or low?'' to how to be pushed in the swing. Kotter keeps readers on their toes by avoiding questions with obvious answers and by varying the types of responses. For example, Arnold falls in a mud puddle and his mother asks, ``Laugh or cry?'' --`` `Cry.' But Arnold laughed!'' The cozy tone of the text gets reinforcement from Conteh-Morgan's homey collages, cut and torn from hand-colored, hand-patterned papers and reminiscent of the bright palettes and childlike style of Susan Roth. Placed across full spreads, the illustrations seem to cramp around the gutters, but this is a minor flaw in an essentially attractive book. Ages 2-6. (Sept.)