THE MONSTER WHO ATE MY PEAS

Arcimboldo meets Mad Magazine as a monster that looks like a cross between an octopus and a compost pile bargains with a young narrator willing to sacrifice his prized soccer ball, and even his new bike, rather than eat peas. The creature wears a battered top hat above its many waving eyestalks and tentacles, and there’s a Seussian (or Clement Clarke Moore) flavor to the rhymed text as well: “His ears were like mushrooms, his chin like a beet, / And he balanced himself on two big stinky feet,” etc. Coming to regret each treasure’s loss, the lad at last screws his courage to the sticking place and samples the dreaded green stuff—only (unsurprisingly) to discover that he likes it. The monster shrivels away forthwith. Though readers may find it hard to swallow the ending (and some lines of text are swallowed by the art over which they’re printed), the rollicking rhythms and madcap, over-the-top art give this successor to Sarah Wilson’s out-of-print Muskrat, Muskrat Eat Your Peas (1989) plenty of comic energy. On to Faust. (Picture book. 8-10)