Baby Brother Blues

Polushkin takes a delightfully lighthearted look at the familiar subject of sibling rivalry. A nameless girl looks on from the sidelines as all the adult members of her family marvel at her new baby brother. Even when he ""squirts,'' the adults pronounce him adorable, while his sister runs in horror from the sprayher facial expressions convey that she, for one, does not find baby quite so charming. But when no one else can make brother stop howling, his sister canand she ruefully admits, ``I guess I like him too.'' That kind of understatement throughout gives Polushkin's story a witty edge, matched by the balloon-style running babytalk of the adults (``Wuzza wuzza,'' ``cootchie cootchie'' and ``bouncy bouncy''). Weiss frames up the action nicely, in pastel patterns and generous dollops of the havoc babies wreak their families. Ages 4-7. (October)