Comic strip animals with googly eyes populate Fischer's (Twinkle
) verse sequence, which has the kinetic energy of a jump-rope rhyme. “Well, I'm a bug. I'm a bug./ I'm a snug little bug,/ and I'm sleeping on a jug./ Until I see a frog, and I... [page turn for suspense] JUMP!” The frog's tongue lashes across the spread, while the purple and red ladybug makes a run for it. Next it's the frog's turn; its slumber is startled by a Disneyesque Persian cat, who is in turn disturbed by a hound dog, and so on. Fischer's action sequences recall the Sunday funnies, and the unvarnished paper accentuates the feeling. With each iteration, his watercolors feel brasher and more playful (a shark looks like he's more interested in wrassling with a croc than devouring it). By the time Fischer gets to a whale, the double-page spread flips from landscape to portrait as the animals are blasted into the air with a “sploosh!” from the whale's blowhole. Read-aloud takes no more than a couple of minutes, but it's a rousing couple of minutes. Ages 2–6. (Mar.)
