Don't Be Afraid, Tommy

""Tommy was afraid of everything,"" begins Baumgart (Laura's Star). That seems something of an understatement for a child who wears a big winter scarf to the beach because he fears catching cold (""The sun might go under""). Tommy's mother tells him he has too much imagination, and, to help him conquer his fretfulness, gives him a puppy named Roly and instructs him to make the pet feel at home. Looking out for a creature even more vulnerable than himself, Tommy sheds one fear after another, so that near the close of the book, the boy is even willing to let his giant Aunt Martha--""almost the scariest thing of all!""--give him ""a big slobbery kiss."" On the last page, readers are treated to their first full view of Roly--who turns out to be a toy dog on wheels (proving, incidentally, that ""too much imagination wasn't such a bad thing after all""). Softly toned, cartoony watercolors show the artist's keen sense for how children can feel overwhelmed by the domestic landscape. Depicting Tommy's reactions to his fears, and not the products of his worried imagination (no octopuses are seen hiding in the toilet, for example), Baumgart enables kids to relax and laugh at what are certain to be many of their own anxieties. Ages 3-7. (June)