"6:32 a.m. This is the farm. My partner, Bill, and I wereworking the barnyard shift. It was peaceful. Quiet. Then we got thecall." Much of this fowl-filled homage to Dragnet (DUM DE DUM DUM!) will be loston kids--and a few grownups, for that matter. But that doesn't make thisstraight-faced send-up of that famous crime-partner show--and a dozen-odd fairytales thrown in for good measure--any less funny. "So you're saying you were robbed, is that right, ma'am? What exactly is missingfrom the nest, ma'am? Eggs, ma'am? Chicks, ma'am?" But it turns out that it'speppers that have gone missing--a peck of "perfect purple, almost-pickledpeppers." But nobody was talking: "We had Horner in the corner and were tryingto make Little Boy Blue quack." Then our intrepid pair of web-footedinvestigators gets a break in the case when a tub of "tartest tasty tomahtoes"turns up missing. DUM DE DUM DUM! It's just more wit from the wonderful Margie Palatini, who brought us Piggie Pie and Zoom Broom, backed up on thisassignment by the spirited illustrations of Richard Egielski. (Ages 4 to 8)--Paul Hughes