Ribbit Rabbit

Ryan (Animal House) and Lowery introduce readers to best friends Bunny and Frog. The bipedal, boyish creatures share a wading pool ("Ribbit Rabbit. Dip it, dab it") and battle stacks of boxes that resemble "monsters" ("Ribbit Rabbit. Zip it, zap it"). They both covet Frog's clockwork robot ("Sometimes they fight over little things"), and when the robot's winding key pops off, Bunny swipes it ("Nip it, nab it") and Frog gets angry. They stubbornly march in opposite directions, each with a necessary component, only to realize they should put their friendship, and the robot, back together. They conclude with a unified "Rib-bot Rab-bot," dressed up as cardboard robots. Lowery (Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder), in pencil sketches and off-registered screen prints, creates deliberately clunky, imperfect illustrations that suggest children's drawings; pea-soup green Frog and lentil-brown Bunny have big round heads, small mouths, and long noodly limbs. Lowery's drab pastel palette suits the everyday topic and evokes a certain drabness, as though the friends are playing indoors on a gray day. Ryan's rhymed consonant-vowel pairings similarly follow a reliable pattern, generating a low-key energy. Ages 3–5. (Feb.)