A BIG JUICY EARTHWORM

There’s nothing friends can’t accomplish together.

Chicken pals Pipo, Bud, and Kenny create ingenious playthings from found objects: A box becomes a pirate ship; a bag becomes a kite. Above all, they love being together. One day, they find half a watermelon. While Bud and Kenny immediately start devouring the succulent fruit, Pipo is more interested in the nearby earthworm whose head temptingly rises aboveground. But, as hard as Pipo pulls, he can’t dislodge it. Finally, Pipo uses a fishing rod to yank it out: success! Except…this worm’s no worm. Pipo’s actually extracted a bootlace attached to a huge boot, which turns out to be a jolly plaything. (Sharp-eyed readers will spot something very interesting peering from the boot’s hole.) Meanwhile, Bud and Kenny have been closely observing Pipo’s activities from the now-empty watermelon rind, to which they’ve added inventive touches. The friends, realizing they miss each other on this hot day, reunite and, pulling out their most creative (and wettest) stops, devise their best project yet—“something the whole neighborhood could enjoy.” Originally published in the Czech Republic, this joyous romp about friendship and cooperation is a comic delight. Kids will savor both the narrative and the winning illustrations and the endearing, adorable characters; they’ll also marvel that the friends’ found objects seem always to be readily handy.

A juicy, entertaining charmer.