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WHERE DOES THE BUTTERFLY GO WHEN IT RAINS (by May Garelick, with illustrations by Leonard Weisgard; Scott; $3) arouses the interest that is native to a child as a question-asking animal. The wet-weather habits of assorted fauna are explored in animated doggerel ("A rabbit can dash—whoosh—into a bush"). And Leonard Weisgard's pictures are done in exquisite mutations of blue that suggest misty Japanese prints. Only irritation: the reader never is told where the butterfly goes when it rains.
OLAF READS (by Joan Lexau, illustrated by Harvey Weiss; Dial; $2.75), after a fashion. When his mother sends this freckled little menace out to mail a letter, he puts it in a basket marked PUT LITTER HERE. "I can read," said Olaf, "but they can't spell." Not librarians, policemen, or entire fire departments can keep Olaf from his disastrous alphabetical go-rounds. As an almost-know-it-all, Olaf is probably the funniest first reader since Mrs. Malaprop.
THE REMARKABLE HARRY (by Evan Hunter, pictures by Ted, Mark and Richard Hunter, introduction by Anita Hunter; Abelard-Schuman; $2.95) is a remarkable stunt. Evan (The Blackboard Jungle) Hunter told a bedtime story that so captivated his three sons, all under eleven, that they drew pictures for it. The kids will not lose their amateur rating, but the illustrations do have a gawky charm. The story is about Uncle Fenster, who had "the snazziest, jazziest, razz-a-ma-tazziest very most mustache that ever was had," except that he was always soggying it up in the breakfast cornflakes. One day he waxed it, took off like Daedalus, and landed almost dead, alas. What with proud Mom's introduction, this is a wacky product of togetherness.
LET'S BE ENEMIES (by Janice May Udry, illustrated by Maurice Sendak; Harper; $1.95) is a little boy's tempest in a treehouse. John and James have been pals. But James always wants to be boss. He carries the flag. He takes all the crayons. He grabs the best digging spoon. John tells James off and vice versa. But the finale is a Chaplinesque vignette, with the two pals rolling off together on a shared roller skate apiece. Small fry, hot from the daily sandpit wars, will dote on this.
A LITTLE RABBIT (by Matias; Walck; $2) suggests that bilingual books may soon polyglot the market. This, too, is in French and English. Comparing the English ("It is I, John, the little rabbit. I am nibbling a carrot") with the French ("C'est moi, Jean, le petit lapin. Je ronge une carotte"), it almost seems as if children's books, like opera, sound better in a foreign language. John-Jean is a pretty ordinary rabbit, but Matias could almost be Matisse as he spatter-paints his pages with gorgeous blobs of red, yellow, orange, blue and green.