Tumble Bumble

One by one, 10 friendly characters--from a pig to a toad to a mouse--fall in step with one another in this lively sequential rhyme. The introductions start with ""a tiny bug"" (an ant, actually) who ""went for a walk./ He met a cat and stopped to talk."" Bug and cat soon encounter a green crocodile, this threesome meets a bee, and so on. Bond, illustrator of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, effectively plans her story's progression. Readers can easily name and number the members of the group, particularly when seven of them sneak into a boy's house (""tippy-toeing on fourteen feet""), fix themselves a snack and peek around the corner of a door so that just their 14 eyes are visible. Bond then steers the animals toward a midday nap; the book serves double duty as counting game and bedtime story. Although the author/artist doesn't break new ground with her cheery watercolor palette and prankishly smiling characters, she knows the needs of her audience--and meets them handsomely. A childlike charmer. Ages 3-up. (Oct.)