GRANDPA'S OVERALLS

In this ebullient tall tale, work clothes take a holiday—and let their owner do the same. One morning, Grandpa's denims come alive, with their two top buttons as eyes, their undone suspenders as arms and the bottoms of their stumpy legs like elephant feet. When they "hop down off their nail on the kitchen wall... and sneak away across the back porch," a Gingerbread Man–style chase ensues. Their chest pocket forming a broad smile, the agile overalls bound across a lettuce patch and hide behind a hay bale. Grandpa, clad only in red long johns, shakes his fists and protests that "a man can't work in nothin' but his long-handled drawers." At last, he modestly sits in the smokehouse while his cheerful neighbors do his plowing and weeding. Nash (Over the Moon) styles the farmers as crotchety dogs and smiling puppies. He uses a supple line to draw the galloping overalls, which perform balletic leaps and juggle potatoes like a vaudevillian. Set in a font that resembles handwriting, Crunk's (Big Mama) limber sentences are equally light-footed, his dialogue pitch perfect and twangy (Grandpa, who's "about ready to pop a stitch," yells, "Come back here, you rapscallions!"). Crunk and Nash maintain a zippy momentum as they follow the footloose drawers—which end up eloping with Grandma's "long-tailed nightie." Ages 4-7. (June)