ALBERT GOES HOLLYWOOD

Like the Biggest Bear, the friendly blue dinosaur that Liz brought home to L.A. from Baja California (How I Captured a Dinosaur, 1989) is growing so huge that he's becoming a problem: The PTA can no longer foot his food bill in exchange for educational services, and his job as a lifeguard ends with the summer. Hoping to avoid the zoo, Liz takes him to Hollywood, where he is promptly drafted for a screen test. Success comes on the second try, after Albert's initial shyness is overcome, and it's back to Baja for a film with Albert and Liz playing themselves and famous stars as Mom and Dad. In Henry Schwartz's disarmingly straightforward narration, the outsize events seem as delightfully ordinary as one of his daughter Amy's realistic picture books (Annabelle Swift, Kindergartner, 1988). Albert continues to be a charmer, especially as depicted in amusing pictures of the fantastic creature in everyday settings, helping out or being taken for granted by various blasÇ observers. One of the better dinosaur fantasies. (Picture book. 4-8)