Another song worth singing, Eric Carle's Today Is Monday, begins with string beans on Monday and spaghetti on Tuesday. Different animals eat their way through the week, teaching the names of the days as they go. Music and lyrics included. ( Apr.)

This small board book edition loses nothing in the new format. The story is an extended poem, adapted from the popular clapping game and song, which explains the further adventures of Mary Mack, her silver buttons, and the famous jumping elephant. Westcott's illustrations are as silly as the subject.

Hoberman's 1998 picture-book version of a bouncy clapping rhyme has been nicely translated into a smaller, board-book format. Most of the original delightful adaptation is here, in a font that's large enough for precocious children to follow. Westcott's magic-marker-bright illustrations bloom from the pages, with the spunky Mary Mack and her rambunctious elephant pal just the right size to avoid cluttered layouts. The hand-clapping exercises that appeared on the picture book's endpapers are missing here, but this is still a lively version of a perennial favorite.