COUSIN RUTH'S TOOTH

`` `Rachel Fister, get your sister!' Mrs. Fister spread the word. `Cousin Ruth has lost a tooth! O, careless youth! It's too absurd.' '' Ah, this hapless family—no sooner have they coped with Rachel Fister's Blister (1990) than a new disaster strikes and the whole clan must come ineffectually to the rescue. There are echoes of the old favorite I Can't Said the Ant in this zany melodrama by the author of The Spider Who Created the World (p. 138), and the Peterkins must be somewhere nearby. When the insistent beat of nursery rhymes is added to mayhem-filled pictures of a family out of their minds with dismay over a ``lost'' tooth, the result is priceless. The reassuring presence of Ruth, who is serene in her knowledge that a new tooth is already growing in, will give children a pleasurable feeling of smugness at the antics of this overprotective clan. A sophisticated vocabulary and carefully composed cadence make it a perfect piece to read aloud or perform. (Picture book. 5-8)