Lazy Ozzie

Ozzie, an owlet, would rather practice ""being wise"" than practice flying in this energetic though somewhat strained semi-cumulative tale, a British import. Left on a barn rafter with instructions from his mother to ""be on the ground by the time I come back,"" Ozzie devises a flightless but labor-intensive plan to get there, involving hopping from the back of one farm animal to another, in descending size, until he's close enough to the ground to hop down. It's clear what Ozzie has in mind from the beginning, so when Ozzie reenacts his exchange with each animal, the text feels tedious rather than cleverly repetitive. Williamson hides Mother Owl so well in each of the giddy, slightly cartoonish spreads (at the end, Mother Owl admits witnessing all of Ozzie's antics) that readers may enjoy their second pass through the book, trying to find her, more than their first. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)