I SEE, YOU SAW

Karlin (The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat, 1996, etc.) echoes Dick, Jane, and Sally—``I see the can. I can kick the can''—but the resemblance is fleeting, for the wordplay in this I-Can-Read entry is clever and bright. Young readers will be amused at the flurry of homonyms—``I can see a fly fly'' among them. There are excursions into past and present, and pokes at pronouns and the and a. Anchoring the book, which is narrated by two kittens, is the word ``seesaw.'' Karlin breaks it up, twists it around, and generally makes merry with the word's many possibilities. ``Look, a saw,'' says one kitten. ``I can see the saw,'' replies the other. ``I can saw the seesaw.'' But a frog gets the last lick: ``And I saw you saw the seesaw''—a grammatically slick tongue-twister. Simple watercolor illustrations crisply depict the meaning of the words, cutting through the ambiguity, and leaving readers with nothing but the purest pleasure. (Picture book. 3-5)