The first two pages of this book are almost exciting. A boy narrator states he likes the contents of a special box at his grandmother's house. Turn the page and there is a box of buttons--no words--just buttons. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there. The boy describes various buttons, telling what he imagines and knows about them--that some came from shoes or from his grandfather's pants. A brief history of buttons appears in the back. A story about buttons just isn't much of a story, and the grocery-store quality illustrations in dull, lifeless watercolors without detail or depth don't help. Even the layout is sloppy. --Denise Krell, New York Public Library Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.