Joan Steiner. Little, Brown, $13.95 (32p) ISBN 0-316-81307-9
Steiner is just as imaginative with this series of vignettes, aimed at a younger audience, as she was in her startling debut, Look-Alikes. Designed on a slightly larger, less intricate scale than those in her first book, these scenes will be familiar to children -- from domestic settings (e.g., a kitchen and bedroom) to a classroom, farmyard, construction site -- even a blastoff into space. But in Steiner's hands, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Common household objects once again do double duty, appearing as something else entirely: mini-blinds become the clapboard siding on a house; upended dog biscuits topped with a comb make a nifty school bench and a farmer drives a tractor and plow made from a tape dispenser and hair clip, among other things. Rhyming couplets introduce each scene, clueing readers in to one of the visual ringers ("Here's the school bus, right on time./ Each rearview mirror looks like a DIME") and setting them up to hunt for more (some 50 appear in each photograph). This stellar sequel will have perceptive readers staring at spreads for hours over many repeated readings. All ages. (Sept.)
