Little Clam

A skimpy plot and repetitive artwork render this seaside tale as barren as a beach at low tide. A boy settles into his bed beneath a stark poster of a clam diagram (with its siphons, shell and foot labeled) and listens to his mother's story about a self-absorbed young clam. Panel illustrations show the bivalve digging deep into the sand with his foot when the tide goes out and stretching out his siphons to sleep underwater when the tide comes in. But one day the clam gets caught up in ""swirling his siphons"" and fails to heed the warning of the protective tide, which announces the impending arrival of hungry predators: a gull, conch and starfish. Slow to awaken to the danger, the clam manages, quite unconvincingly, to squirt, kick and snap at his foes, whom the incoming tide then washes ashore with a vengeance. As the sea calms and the clam sleeps, the tide sings a trite lullaby. Bringing the tale ashore, Reiser (Margaret and Margarita) shows the mother telling her son, ""Sleep tight, my little clam."" Following that, in a kind of strange epilogue, is an illustrated ""A Little Clam Game,"" which shows the mother using bedclothes to imitate the movement of the tide as the boy, pretending his pillow is a shell, mimics a clam's motions. Few will feel compelled to shell out any clams for this one. Ages 4-up. (Sept.)