WHAT WILL WE DO WITH THE BABY-O?

Heras, a children's librarian, assembles a highly idiosyncratic song collection: among the 10 ditties she's thrown together are the bumptious "Jig Along Home, " the mordant "The Riddle Song" ("I gave my love a cherry that had no stone...") and the odd "Ally Bally Bee" (a song that may be better known in Canada, home of both author and illustrator). Herbert, working in a style that may be best described as 1930s Fleischer Studio animation meets 1960s retro, tries to tie this hodgepodge together with a visual narrative arc; she follows one inexhaustible and endearingly bald toddler boy (the title's Baby-O), his two overcompensating, very girly sisters, and their harried parents from morning 'til night. The tactic never overcomes the collection's stitched-together feel, but if readers take the spreads on an individual basis, the illustrations' bright bounciness is undeniably spunky. And Herbert nails how a youngest child's oblivious irrepressibility can both energize family life and make everyone yearn for bedtime. Ages 2-5. (Nov.)