Just in Passing

Everyone knows how contagious a yawn can be, but in this book (as in Barney Saltzberg's The Yawn ), the yawn itself seems to take on a life of its own, traveling from one person to another. In Bonners's entertaining book, a yawn passes from a baby to an old woman, a newsman, a zookeeper, his hippopotamus, a cyclist and many more until the last yawner meets the original baby--whose lips are curling into a yawn. Children will find much to look at and discuss as the yawn moves in and out of the city and surrounding countryside. One especially imaginative link-up occurs when a bird watcher espies a yawning repairman atop a telephone pole. A woman catches the yawn from a snapshot of the open-mouthed hippo. The lively and colorful illustrations make this wordless book a delight for youngsters. Ages 3-5. (Mar.)