JOSEPH WANTS TO READ

Amiable jungle animals play a name game in this disappointing book, which is compromised by its incomplete alphabet. At the School of the Tropics, amid stylized foliage and vines, a monkey named Joseph protests summer vacation: "I wanted to learn to read first," he says. His teacher, Ms. Giraffe, suggests that Joseph can practice reading if his friends wear letters corresponding with their names. She assigns a T to Toucan and an H to Hippo. Later, when Badger, Ox and Antelope get together, Joseph notices that their combination spells BOA, "and the band scampered away from the big snake" lurking behind blue palm trees. But the audience never gets a sense of Joseph's process of learning to read. Too few species populate Joseph's forest: Teyssèdre introduces a wealth of R's and E's (including Eagle, Egret and Elephant), but neglects common letters like N, P and W; Joseph, with his human name, doesn't learn the letter M for Monkey. While this French-to-English translation showcases Teyssèdre's cheerful gouaches of placid and friendly beasts, it falls short as a spelling or reading lesson. Ages 3-6. (July)