GIGGLE-WIGGLE WAKE-UP!

For Sammy the preschooler, there are a host of ways to describe the excitement that comes with the arrival of Monday morning. The sun's "skipping through the window" starts in motion "a tiny-shiny wake-up/ It's a tiny-shiny day." As Sammy and his mother make their way to school through the "busy whizzy wildness" of the city to gear up for another work week, "It's a whizzy-tizzy speed-up/ It's a whizzy-tizzy day." Music time, when Sammy and his classmates get to "clomp-stomp, clomp-stomp" around the room with percussion instruments, turns Monday into "a jingle-jangle juggle-up/It's a jingle-jangle day." As Carlstrom's (the Jesse Bear books) infectiously singsong text dances in readers' ears (some phrases are sure to become firmly lodged in youngsters' vocabularies), Sweet's (Charlotte in Paris ) gleeful childlike watercolors harmonize with bright colors and devil-may-care perspectives (the rush-hour cars and trucks look as if they're rappelling up the roads). Characters appear as painted cutouts pasted onto the scene, an approach that brings to mind preschool art projects. Monday mornings may make grown-ups groan, but Carlstrom and Sweet know that children see a day filled with all the things that make life worthwhile—from noisy trucks to eager friends to hugs and kisses from Mommy. Ages 2-5. (Oct.)