Sleepy Time Olie
Parents can be forgiven for wondering what it is that appeals about  William Joyce's Ping-Pong-headed space hero, Rolie Polie Olie. But read about  him and his family to any child under five, and there's no doubting that the  attraction of the Rolie Polie Planet is powerful. In this rhyming bedtime  adventure, Olie waits for a goodnight story from Pappy (grandpa), but Pappy  turns up late and befuddled after a nasty bonk on the head. Olie saves the day  by creating a sort of funny ray. (The adult but not the child will be irritated  at the inconsistencies here: in one illustration Olie is filling a bucket with  tricks and treats, and in the next this has inexplicably become a bubble-gun;  equally inexplicably, it's described as a ray-gun.) "Then Olie burst into the  room / and with his ray dispelled the gloom. 'I made a Pappy pick-me-up / to  help old Pappy ungrow up.'" Shakespeare it isn't, but small kids are better than  we are at empathizing with characters whose very souls seem to be made from  Ping-Pong balls too. They love it! (Ages 3 to 5)--Richard Farr