When reviewers are 6 and 8; Clams Can't Sing, by James Stevenson. New York Greenwillow Books. $5.95.

Well, I liked Beatrice and Benny. They are clams. But I'm not sure if they can sing or not. They say "Oosh! Fush! Ba-loop!" Those are bubbles. Then they get fancy and say, "Smoosha, Loooosha, Foooooosha, clap-clip."

Is that singing? And if they dance insidem their shells, how do we know they are dancing?

Well, there are other animals in the story. They have an orchestra. Is it a good orchestra? Mom, that depends on who reads the book, because there are lots of noises to make like Glop Bxt-Bxxt, Chaka-Chaka. When my brother, Joshie (he's 11), reads the book to me, the orchestra is great and really funny, but when you read it, Mom, it isn't so great!

I'd like it [the book] better if I lived by the ocean. Joshie had to explain that Humphrey is a horseshoe crab, and that's why, when Bert, the gull, dropped a stone on him, it went "Klonk." Because his shell is hard.

And I didn't know mussels could clack. Well, I thought that was when you were strong -- and had muscles.

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