GETTING USED TO HARRY

Best (Taxi! Taxi!, 1995, not reviewed) has added another entry—one of the better ones—to the shelf of stories about adjusting to stepparents. When Cynthia's mom marries Harry, the shoe store man, the new couple dances around the room while Harry trills, ``Isn't love the berries!'' But Cynthia doesn't like being shunted to secondary status in her mother's life. In keeping with its relaxed tone, the book is short on scenes of Cynthia and Harry not getting along, but includes a sweet, extended episode where they reconcile when Cynthia gets insomnia. Smart and snappy, Best's words breeze across the pages as nimbly as ballroom dancers. The title may give the ending away, but was there ever any real doubt about the outcome? Palmisciano's watercolors accent the lighter-than-air tone. (Picture book. 4-8)