Animal Parade

Ninety-eight creatures promenade across the pages of this populous alphabet book. From left to right on the first spread, for example, aardvark, antelopes, anteater and ants pursue beaver, bison, bear, bee and butterflies, while the hind quarters of letter C's camel appear on the very edge of the right-hand page. Occasionally the species interact (quetzal, raccoon and rat ride atop the rhinoceros; woe betide the ant nearest the anteater) and, apart from their anthropomorphized grins, they are depicted fairly realistically. Wood's palette, too, is especially felicitious. On balance, however, the book is rather static. The background is uniformly blank, accentuating the clarity of the color illustrations but providing no context for the ``parade,'' which begins and ends for undetermined reasons at undetermined sites. Kids, however, may enjoy the multitude of friendly creatures--and learn some zoological identification along the route. Ages 1-5. (Mar.)