LITTLE MISS MUFFET'S COUNT-ALONG SURPRISE

When little Miss Muffet plunks down on her tuffet, the spider she sees is actually the first guest to arrive for her surprise birthday party. As the guests filter in bearing presents, food, and party favors, the poem expands ingeniously into a counting rhyme: ``When along came two Lemurs/With trumpets and streamers'' and ``When along came eight puffins/With blueberry muffins''; these animal guests and their gifts are both satisfyingly out-of-the-ordinary and fun on the tongue. The pictures are done in Clark's familiar style, with scenes becoming more crowded as guests accumulate, until ten crocodiles carrying a suspicious-looking box arrive and temporarily scare off the revelers. Turns out they've brought the cake in this wonderful variation on the nursery rhyme that for once will frighten no one away. (Picture book. 2-6)