The light-hearted sticker on this book's cover ("WARNING: Do you have the guts to read this book?") probably should not be taken as a joke. Within, a dog fantasizes in lengthily detailed verse about eating the mail carrier: "A whole hand!/ Now wouldn't that be grand?/ To crack a knuckle,/ or a few!/ To peel back a palm/ and chew!" The dog's daydream intensifies, gruesomely. The floppy-eared hound imagines itself nosing deep in the abdomen of its victim, whose pink organs glisten in a disconcertingly moist way in Andrea Beck's (the Elliot Moose series) paintings. After tugging out the intestines, the wild-eyed dog starts in on the brain. Carolyn Beck's verse ("When I got a peek…/ at that/ spewing spitting hissing fissure/ your phlegm-hacking/ up-chacking (mmmmmmm)/ lip-smacking kisser") might tickle the sick-humor crowd, but the gore-stained walls and dripping intestines will be hard to take. Ages 8-up. (Sept.)
