The latest book from this British husband-and-wife team (The World Is Full of Babies
) takes a comic look at the food chain. "Look!
A fly buzzing by...," says the bold handwritten text, as an endearingly goofy, orange bug–eyed insect zooms across the spread. "Snap!
/ Fly is in frog's belly." The frog straddles the spread while a cutaway view shows the fly inside. This repast kicks off a cumulative narrative that ends with all of the diners—which includes a duck, a pike and a full-grown fisherman—inside a bear's tummy: "Here snores the bear that swallowed the fisherman that caught the pike that ate the duckling that guzzled the frog that gobbled the fly that came buzzing by...." Manning and Granström supersize most of their characters; the generous sense of scale, along with bold colors and a thick, exuberant ink line give their pictures a spontaneous quality and energy. Those readers who are usually disturbed by the eat-and-be-eaten ethic of this genre will be relieved to note that every one of the characters seems well-adjusted to life inside the others' stomachs—even the fisherman looks more perplexed than miffed. Ages 3-6. (Nov.)
