cover image Fizits

Fizits

D. T. Munda. Tuttle Publishing, $14.95 (41pp) ISBN 978-0-8048-1970-1

Exhaustingly upbeat, this Pollyanna picture book features Fizits--fuzzy, comet-shaped creatures of light who live by the ``Lake of Laughs.'' When a sad, lonely cube--the sole inhabitant of a planet that has no sun, only mud and rain--appears amongst them, the Fizits are perplexed by his gloom, and do everything in their power to gladden his heart. A surprise party does the trick, and happiness transforms the little square into a ``golden white'' triangle--a ``Little Pyramid of Light!'' Munda apparently feels that abundance of exclamation points (and even double exclamation points!!) will help generate excitement for readers, but it would take more than punctuation to dredge this overwrought tale out of the mire. The illustrations are slick and commercial but intriguing, possessed of a cinematic quality (McGovern has done animated illustrations for film), and they hint of an artist who, given less histrionic subject matter, might just deliver the goods. Ages 3-up. (Mar.)