My Perfect Neighborhood

Komaiko and Westman ( I Like the Music ) return to familiar turf, once again paying homage to a colorful urban neighborhood. This time they celebrate not sounds but, more generally--and somewhat less convincingly--the power of the imagination. The young narrator lives in an unconventional neighborhood indeed, in which a horse on roller skates, a dentist shaving a man's head, or dogs waving to cats might easily be encountered in the course of a day. Some of the book's images--grownups lined up meekly for recess, a bed salesman testing his own wares in the window--are clever and genuinely funny; others seem random and less amusing. Komaiko's verses are able but disappointingly restrained, especially in comparison to the finger-snapping, foot-tapping rhythms of her previous books. Happily, Westman's illustrations are anything but subdued: a riot of brilliant colors and joyous eccentricities, they make the neighborhood spring to life. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)