The Kingfisher Nursery Rhyme Songbook: With Easy Music to Play for Piano and Guitar

In contradistinction to Yolen & co. (see review above), this team of editor and illustrators reduces the complexity of nursery rhymes to a pease-porridge blandness. Everything here is cute as a button: the Macleans could have taken their palette from a bag of jelly beans, and their tirelessly cheerful characters sport cartoony faces (dots for eyes, apple-red cheeks, one-line smiles). To enhance the 47 songs she has chosen, Emerson addresses parents with recommended activities. These range from the obvious (``Rock your baby gently in your arms as you sing `Rock-a-Bye Baby,' here called `Hush-a-Bye''') to easy-as-pie instructions for making a hobby horse out of household supplies. Titles like ``The Farmer's in the Den'' and ``The Hokey Cokey'' betray this book's British origins. Ages 1-5. (Oct.)