Ten Red Apples

Bold colors dominate Hutchins's (Titch) gouache paintings, framed in fire-engine red and featuring characters depicted as hinged wooden people and animals. The rhyming, sing-song text counts down from 10 as a succession of farm animals consume apples from a tree, beginning with a horse: ""Ten red apples hanging on the tree./ Yippee, fiddle-dee-fee!/ Horse came and ate one,/ chomp, chomp, chomp./ Neigh, neigh, fiddle-dee-fee./ `Horse!' cried the farmer./ `Save some for me!' "" For each verse, an animal takes its fruit, then moves to the right side of the spread, creating a cumulative visual effect. After the ninth animal helps itself to the tree's bounty, a sole apple remains for the farmer, but none for his wife, who hopes to bake a pie. In the closing spreads, the farmer spies another tree bearing 10 apples, setting youngsters up to start all over again. Hutchins's repetitive narrative, with its long vowel sounds coupled with crayon-bright toy characters, will invite audience participation and boost beginning readers' self-confidence. Ages 3-up. (Apr.)