Huggly Takes a Bath

With a name like ""Huggly,"" the humorous hero of Arnold's Huggly Gets Dressed proves none too fearsome, even if he is ""The Monster Under the Bed."" From the moment he emerges from beneath a ""people child's"" red blanket, the green-skinned, yellow-stomached Huggly smiles benignly. He tiptoes to the well-lit bathroom, where he scrubs between his toes with the family toothbrushes and douses himself in a white froth of liquid soap and bath water. Covered in bubbles, Huggly is mistaken for a ""fluffy white ghost"" by a sleepy boy, but the conclusion finds him safely under the bed again, no damage done. Arnold's lively colored-pencil and watercolor images of this spiny-backed dino-frog take the threat out of the bedtime beast; it's impossible to fear a curious, buggy-eyed monster who tastes toothpaste and plays in the tub. Best of all, readers may even feel inclined to bathe after Huggly endorses a slippery combination of shampoo and water: ""This is the best slime pit ever!"" Ages 3-6. (Feb.)