The antics and adventures of cool boy Earl include riding on the Milky Way, growing a rose from his fingernails, and swinging with gorillas. Grade 1-2 ``Earl's got a hat with a real horse feather,/ He wears socks made of chicken leather./ Earl's too cool for me.'' A nerdy lad with small glasses and hair parted in the middle is sure that Earl's just too hip to be a friend, but when the two finally meet they hit it off``Yes, Earl's pretty funny, and he's really nice./ He's eight years old and only thrown up twice.'' The young narrator concludes, ``We're as cool as cool can be.'' In the slightly grotesque watercolor illustrations, a la Henrik Drescher, but with a clearer, less speckled look, adults and children surround Earl in admiring crowds. As in Annie Bananie (Harper, 1987) Komaiko takes a fresh look at a well-worn subject, but compared to Clifton's Everett Anderson's Friend (Holt, 1976; o.p.), the treatment here is awkward and superficial, the ending too quick and easy. John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.