Nonstop Nonsense

There are well over 100 pages of mischievous, marvelous stories and poems in this collection from Mahy ( The Haunting ; The Tricksters ) and Blake (illustrator of The BFG ). Blake's quirky black-and-white drawings frequently comment on the text like cartoon characters, as when a startled woman appears to spout the copyright information and a man in a pince-nez beside her says, ``It beats me how she remembers it all.'' Mahy's story about the cat who ``gets poetry in his blood'' by swallowing a poet-mouse is pure fun, and children will enjoy the puns and unexpected characters that inhabit the eccentric landscape. The Flingamango, the man from the land of Fandango, a small ghost who lives in a book, a word-wizard who wreaks havoc on the Delmonico Family--all make merry in a nonsense world where most things are slightly--and gleefully--askew. Ages 6-10. (April)