THE PATTACONK BROOK

Shoehorned, with uneven grace, into an insistent dactylic tetrameter that mimics a burbling brook (``A branch floating by might be jumped on and ridden./One might ride over waterfalls down to the sea''), here is the saga of Sidney—a frog, first seen recording the Pattaconk's voice in his notebook—and his friend Sherry, a snail (``I'm a listener, not a speller''). The two board a passing twig and—defying the usual laws of motion for such a vessel—float to the sea, occasioning a certain amount of lyricism in the verse but not as much as is to be found in Stevenson's casual-seeming (but considerably more adroit) line and the delectable colors in which he presents this idyll. Reaching their mutual goal results in a bittersweet parting, with rather adult resonances: Sherry decides to stay on, but Sidney needs to get back upstream to his notebook. Slight, but sweet; fans of Stevenson's art won't be disappointed. (Picture book. 4- 8)