Maynard's Dreams

Rose ( There's a Monster Under My Bed ) imagines things that a mischievous cat might dream about in these rather bleak vignettes. As yellow kitten Maynard naps, his subconscious offers visions of the animals he terrorizes during his waking moments. Here, however, roles are reversed: Maynard is captured by a gigantic mouse, pelted with acorns by vengeful squirrels and trapped in a birdcage. The vertiginous illustration for ``Top of the World'' shows Maynard on a tiny platform high above mountain peaks as three woodpeckers hammer away at the sole supporting pole; in ``Ice-Cold,'' the cat freezes and melts into a puddle, and in ``The Swim,'' he turns into a fish. Despite their typically morbid themes, Rose's acrylic compositions, with their strong contrasts and shadowy colors, are not particularly unsettling--Maynard himself appears merely apprehensive and perhaps curious upon finding himself in mortal danger. Still, the relatively benign art, the curiously stilted, matter-of-fact narrative voice, and the faint uplift provided each time Maynard awakens cannot dispel this book's latent negativity and predatory mercilessness. More nightmare than dream. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)