All Gone!

It's difficult to understand the intent or the appeal of these simple--perhaps overly so--small-sized books. The endpapers, with their alternating depictions of night and day seen through four-paned windows, are delightful, but they bear no relation to the books' contents. In the spreads of Oh, No! , a toddler turns familiar routines into messy, supposedly humorous situations. ``Kissing Granny'' becomes an occasion for ``Oh, no!'' when the lad pulls off the startled grandmother's spectacles; ``Eating lunch'' brings the same dismayed exclamation as he uses a bowl of spaghetti for a hat. Parents may object to the opportunities these repeated mishaps could suggest to imaginative youngsters. Also, the absence of any sort of reprimand is another failing here; the mischievous acts are apparently regarded as cute. All Gone may bring about confusion over the childhood phrase: the cat's dinner is indeed ``all gone'' after puss has licked the bowl clean, but closing the front door in the animal's face hardly renders it gone. Ages 2-6. (Mar.)