CHICKEN LITTLE
Written and illustrated by Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley, Roaring Brook, 32 pages, $18.95, ages 3 to 6
“Chicken Little was not the brightest chicken in the coop. He was very excitable and prone to foolishness.” So begins this iteration of an oft-told tale, a telling that distinguishes itself not just by its choice of words (interspersed with a multitude of bonks! and oops! and eeps!) and its high energy quotient, but most especially by its vivid, jagged, quite splendiferous illustrations.
The acorn that falls out of the sky knocks this chicken senseless. “‘Oh my goodness, oh my gracious!' he exclaimed. ‘The sky is falling! The sky is falling! I must run for my life!' He grabbed his umbrella to protect his scrambled noggin and ran out into the world without much of a plan.'”
Henny Penny, Lucky Ducky, Loosey Goosey and Turkey Lurkey join Chicken Little in the frantic flight from who knows what, right into the “warm, dark cave” that was Foxy Loxy's mouth. Fold-out pages – a triple spread – deliver the lovely and surprise ending: “... CHOOOOOOOO!!!”
A WIZARD IN LOVE
By Mireille Levert, illustrated by Marie Lafrance, Tundra, 32 pages, $19.99, ages 4 to 7
Mireille Levert's book entered this world in 2007 as Le sorcier amoureux. In any language, this story about a despondent retired wizard would have its charms. Hector lives with his cat, Poison, a black feline wearing a pointed hat, in a run-down house in which shutters are always closed against intruding rays of sunlight. The telephone is unplugged, visitors are discouraged and Hector and Poison spend their days and nights in front of the TV, gorging on cookies. They're quite a sight as conceived by illustrator Marie Lafrance; each as mean-eyed as the other, they almost bristle with ennui.
But hark! A noise! A ghastly, invasive noise, “a horrible, dreadful noise hammering at [Hector's] brain” was coming directly from the house across the street. Hector stamps his way out of the house and across the road to a freshly painted, flower-bedecked house inside which a beautiful woman with a beautiful smile is playing a piano.
“‘How hateful!' Hector growled. ‘This must be stopped.'” Nasty potions are concocted and an evil cake is baked, but love and music will find their way – and indeed, they do. You'll be pleased to know, I'm sure, that Poison, Hector and the beautiful pianist become a ménage à trois.
HONK, HONK, GOOSE!: Canada Geese Start a Family
By April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Huy Voun Lee, Henry Holt, 32 pages, $18.95, ages 4 to 7
The Canada Goose, that ubiquitous, much-maligned – often for good reason – bird, a national icon of sorts, is the focus of this beautifully illustrated book. Paper collage is the medium here, forming swaths of verdant green (the lakeshore undefiled by excrement?) and cerulean blue, a backdrop for Huy Voun Lee's adult birds and chicks in various states of being or becoming.
“Honk, hee-honk, honk!” That mid-March cacophony signals the beginning of the male goose's pursuit of a female goose. He chases away squirrels and extraneous ducks; he chases away everything except the female goose.
“He and she spent all their time together. Dabble, dip, they paddled in the pond. Pluck, pull, they fed on plants. Stretch, curve, their necks danced. Then they mated. Splash, splash, they took baths.”
A nest is made, lined with down that the female plucks from her breast. All the while, the male, honking, hissing and flapping, chases away possible foes – the muskrat, snapping turtle and opossum – but he's too late to stop the raccoon from rolling an egg out of the nest. It breaks, but eventually six eggs hatch – Crack! Crick! Peep! Honk, hee-honk, honk! Hisssssssss! It's all those noises that accompany the successful raising of a family of goslings that give this book its crackle and fizz.
