GABBY THE SHREW

Gabby is a very hungry little shrew, even after a copious meal of bugs and worms and other squishy, slippery creatures. His mom goes out to get him more food, but Gabby can't wait. He goes out into the forest, and his piercing voice causes all the insects for miles around to scram. When he finds a house at the edge of the forest, Gabby, who hasn't quite figured out what's edible and what's not, starts chomping rugs and wallpaper and destroys the house as the people inside try to destroy Gabby. He finally bellows for his mother, who came home with his second meal and found Gabby missing, and she rescues him. Nothing, however, can save the house that Gabby's rampage has wrecked. Chast's illustrations are appropriately yucky and manic, but Olsen and Efron's (Really Scared Stiff, not reviewed) loud, annoying, slime-eating shrews leave the reader with a bad taste and an enormous headache. (Fiction/Picture book. 4+)