Tuscanini

Tuscanini is an elephant with a penchant for opera--and a troublesome trunk. He enjoys using it as a hose, which tends to make people at the zoo wet and angry. However, like a certain famous reindeer, Tuscanini ends up using his ``nose'' to save the day. When two bandits try to steal the zoo's new pandas, the indignant elephant trumpets an animal alarm to the monkeys, the lion and the tropical birds. They succeed in foiling the panda-nappers, and the zoo celebrates Tuscanini as its hero. A famous diva attending the festivities asks him to conduct the opera that night, and he is a mammoth success. This droll tale exhibits flashes of genuine wit: the zoo fetes the new pandas ``because they are a dwindling species and need encouragement.'' But a certain stilted quality in Weiss's pastel illustrations robs the characters of life; the pandas, for example, look like stuffed toys in the arms of their abductors. Still, any child who has been to the zoo (or the opera) will be intrigued and amused by the escapades of this precocious pachyderm. Ages 2-6. (Mar.)*