Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith are co-author of many wonderful books that appeal to a broad range of readers. When wells go dry the outcome, though problematic if one is thirsty, is at least straightforward. Books produced by authors who have tapped out a creative vein, on the other hand, though equally disappointing, are far more complex.

    Baloney (Henry P.), the highly promoted new title by Scieszka and Smith, is such a title. The book follows an alien, Henry P. Baloney, who uses his imagination to make up a story on the spot that will excuse his lateness to school to his tough minded teacher, Miss Bugscuffle.

    Henry uses twenty words from other earth languages mixed in with his English. Thus he writes, "I used my zimulus (pencil - Latvian) to open the escape pordo (door - Esperanto). The book jacket makes it plain that this word substitution is a dynamic, hugely creative aspect of the book because it mimics the feeling of learning to read when "every other word looks like it comes from outer space."

    The fact that word substitution, which requires readers to deduce meaning from context, is an important skill doesn't excuse Baloney (Henry P.) from being lifeless and uninteresting, which it is. The narrative has the feel of a circus announcer trying to drum up enthusiasm for a ring full of lethargic ghates (cats - Greek)

    David Wiesner is another author who, after a string of superb books, has produced a strangely flat offering, The Three Pigs. Wiesner, whose previous books, Tuesday and June 29, 1999, for example, had no text, uses words this time. The Three Pigs employs the device of having fairy tale characters escape from the pages of traditional fairy tale books into a blank world in which they have free will and being. They can then reenter traditional books and scare unsuspecting wolves and so forth.

    Charmless and superficially clever, The Three Pigs is a train wreck of a book, wanting to go too many different directions and reaching none.

    Artificial, and overly sophisticated, The Three Pigs and Baloney (Henry P) make one long for simple, genuinely charming childrens books like Emily Arnold McCully's Four Hungry Kittens, and Joan Sullivan Baranski's Round is a Pancake.

    Mcully, who won the Caldecott Medal for Mirette on the Highwire, plays to her strengths in Four Hungry Kittens, which is a visual story book done entirely without words. The story follows a few hours in the lives of four kittens in a barn, in which a solicitous farm dog keeps a weather eye out for them.

    Round is a Pancake features a simple running verse accentuating all things round. The drawings by Yu-Mei Han have a cheerful, vibrant, rolling quality set in a pastoral, carnival background.