ROLLING ROSE

A familiar piece of baby equipment—the rolling walker—is celebrated in artfully cadenced, unrhymed verse whose rolling rhythm vividly evokes the heady freedom endowed by these first wheels, as does the imaginative text. Little Rose goes right out the door in her ``Rosemobile,'' exploring the garden before setting off down the street, collecting a Pied Piper's crowd of similarly equipped babies. After exploring the countryside, they all make their way home again for a happy bath and bed. Stevenson uses a minimum of sure, deftly scribbled strokes of the pen here, adding splashes of watercolor in delectably apt tones. Charming. (Picture book. 0-6)