Polkabats and Octopus Slacks: 14 Stories

Author and illustrator Calef Brown is a blue elephant, we're told on the back flap of the book, and we half-believe it, judging from this exuberant, unforgettable collection of 14 ultra-hip rhyming stories about everything from sleeping fruit to a funky--and we mean funky--snowman. In comical folk-art paintings, bathed in truly delicious colors, we meet Ed. "Introducing Ed, / with cherries on his head. / He says, 'I like the color,' / So all his stuff is red..." One odd hamlet is described like this: "Clementown is greenish, / the people tall and leanish, / the dogs bark very loudish, / but not because they're meanish." Brown sings the praises of "Snails" as well: "...they don't make threats, / they don't eat meat, / they don't place bets, / they almost always pay their debts / and never puff on cigarettes." These poems are as nonsensical as Edward Lear's, but clearly for modern hipster kids, and, well, adults, too. (Click to see a sample spread. Illustrations © 1998 by Calef Brown.) (All ages) --Karin Snelson