Who Wants One?

Like Serfozo and Narahashi's Who Said Red? , this jaunty and original counting book is a standout. A girl playing magician waves a wand over her magic box. ``Who wants one?'' she asks, and though she bedazzles her brother with everything from two shiny shoes to seven swans on sky-blue lakes, he stoutly maintains that he wants only one. ``You don't want nine, / when nine's so fine?'' she asks. ``Nine bluebirds sitting on a sign, / Nine green umbrellas, in a line. / Do you want nine?'' But the curly-haired brother wants only one, and at the end of the book he gets it, when his sister hands him one wriggling puppy. Narahashi deftly transforms Serfozo's lilting rhymes into a bouquet of color, whether 10 brown hens lay speckled eggs on the back of 10 pink bucolic pigs or when two dapper kangaroos in vaudeville hats dance in sunny spotlights. Ages 3-6. (Sept.)