NONFICTION - June 4, 1995

SO MANY DYNAMOS! And Other Palindromes by Jon Agee (Farrar Straus Giroux: $12.21) Re-peek at a keeper! That’s what you’ll want to do with this whimsical book of palindromes, perfectly illustrated to turn often remarkable feats of wordplay into amusing cartoons in their own right. Palindromist Jon Agee’s second volume of phrases that read the same coming or going is even better than his debut, “Go Hang A Salami! I’m A Lasagna Hog!”

Agee has written and illustrated six other children’s books, although his palindrome collections appeal to anyone who appreciates linguistic antics. There’s the two nuns in a bar (above), one being served a drink, the other with a golf club slung over her shoulder and a bit of moral guidance for her sister--”Flo, gin is a sin! I golf!” And the illustration that accompanies “Too Hot To Hoot” is pure whimsy: two rather wall-eyed owls on a barren tree under a blazing sun, one tumbling from the limb without the energy even to flap its wings. There are more than 60 cartoons in all, most of them a truly inspired marriage of cartooning and wordplay.

Of course, even the price is a palindrome: $12.21.