Mrs. Wolf: 2a 3-Dimensional Picture Book

Festooned with pop-ups, pull-tabs and various flaps, this energetic picture book would succeed even without the clever paper engineering. A young lamb tumbles, via pull-tab, into the den of the voracious-looking green-eyed Mrs. Wolf, who ignores Lambert's pleas to be taken home. ``It's nearly dinnertime,'' she tells him, and proceeds to bathe him (the reader participates by means of a particularly well constructed pop-up with its own pull-tab), prepare her kitchen with frightening utensils, and smack her lips over her cookbook's listings of ``Recipes for Lambs.'' She swings a terrified Lambert over the kettle (another pop-up with pull-tab), and the reader helps her aim a masher--only to discover that Mrs. Wolf is mashing up food to serve Lambert. Roddie sets up the surprise for optimum dramatic effect, and the suspense continues even after Lambert has been fed. Paul gives his characters outlandish animated expressions and fills the abundant backdrops with tangy details. A book to savor. Ages 5-8. (May)