WHAT'S FOR LUNCH?

Sidney, a mouse thinking about his own lunch, is unperturbed when a cat declares that ``I'm going to eat you.'' Noticing a bounding dog, he rejoins, ``I don't think so.'' The dog pants, ``I'm going to chase you, cat.'' Again, not so: A goose plans to bite the dog's tail, but a fox sneaks up on the goose, and so on until an elephant proposes to sit on the lion before it can ``paw'' the goat that was going to butt the fox, and Sidney's friend Shirley, arriving with their lunch in a basket, shouts ``Boooo!'' All the other animals run home in a fright, but the two mice settle down to an elegant picnic. O'Malley's brash cartoon-style illustrations add substantially to the humor of this simple, repetitive tale, which will be as much fun for beginning readers as for the preschoolsers who are its more obvious audience. (Picture book. 2-7)