The Roman Twins

Young readers are again treated to an idiosyncratic view of history through the late Gerrard's (Wagons West!; Sir Cedric Rides Again) imaginatively distorted looking glass. In Ancient Rome, brother and sister twins Maximus and Vanilla are ""doomed"" to be slaves to the demanding, lazy Slobbus Pompius and his vain wife. Rhyming couplets spiritedly describe how Maxi and Vanilla perform legion tasks at home, and then, exhausted, must schlep their masters through the streets of town: ""Not daring to complain, nonetheless the pair felt bitter,/ Forced to fetch and cart around two fatties on a litter."" But Pompius stretches his luck too far when he instructs the twins to do away with his new horse Polydox, just because Polydox (in a vintage display of horse sense) refuses to obey him. Instead, spunky Maximus and Vanilla run away with the steed and--after two new friendships, a chariot race and a brush with Ostrogoths--they finally avenge their despicable master and mistress. Gerrard's paintings tweak traditional proportion and perspective to highly amusing end as the artist puts his distinctive stamp on such period particulars as togas and sandals, lavish mosaics and monumental architecture. But the most memorable visuals are his signature characters, as round as they are short--their scale and charm (at least that of the good guys) easily endear them to kids. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)