Crustacean Vacation

In Benoit’s slight but high-spirited debut, a happy-go-lucky crab family enjoys a holiday at the seaside. In appropriate vacation garb—the grandmother sports a patterned swimsuit and flowered bathing cap, and the camera-toting father wears socks and sandals on his eight legs—the quintet dives into the resort’s attractions. Benoit has fun with wordplay (“The crabs go in search of an afternoon treat:/ Peanut butter and jellyfish—bon appetit!”), but more often than not, the couplets sacrifice clarity (or logic) for the sake of a rhyme; after the crabs climb into a pipe that unexpectedly lands them in a water park, “Awe-struck, incredulous, thanking their grandma,/ The crabs find themselves in crustacean nirvana.” The story relies heavily on Kelley’s (The Messiest Desk) lively, googly-eyed cartoons to give the characters personalities, albeit ones built on cliché (exhausted parents, wacky grandma, kids dressed in pink and blue). Throughout, Benoit refers to the group simply as “the crabs” or “the crab family,” making readers feel like distant observers of the action; the “two little crablets” don’t even get names. Ages 4–8. (June)