SIT STILL!

Teachers and parents will immediately recognize Patrick, the subject of this appealing, slice-of-life picture book: He is the child who just can't sit still. Patrick knows 101 ways to sit in a chair; the drawing shows this happy, lanky kid always in motion in eight different chairs, as he rocks, kicks, lounges, and sprawls. ``Sit still'' are the two words he hears most, but Patrick really can't help it—even the doctor admits that there's nothing he can do for the boy. Patrick's mother, though, is not so placid; she comes up with dozens of activities for Patrick and starts walking to school with him. No Attention-Deficit Disorder in this book, no administering of Ritalin; Carlson (How to Lose All Your Friends, 1994, etc.) is interested in a good old case of the fidgets, capturing Patrick in bright, flat, action-filled pictures with strongly diagonal compositions and multiple images that convey motion. The solution will strike some as simplistic, but the good humor and tolerance expressed send a positive message about kids like Patrick. (Picture book. 5-8)