FUNNY FRANK

A misfit chick achieves his heart’s desire only to outgrow it, in King-Smith’s (Lady Lollipop, 2001, etc.) latest barnyard charmer. Frank’s karma differs from that of his seven newly hatched brothers and sisters, for from the very beginning he yearns to swim with the ducks. Seeing this, his young, human guardian Jemima Tabb enlists adult aid, and soon Frank—so dubbed for his call, which is mid-way between a cheep and a quack—is clad in a little wetsuit crafted from an old hot-water bottle, and zooming about the pond on rubber-glove flippers. But though Frank is accepted by the ducklings (“ ‘Love your gear, man! It’s cool!’ ”), and even saves his mother by startling a fox, he still feels like an outsider. As in the story, humans and animals mingle freely in loosely drawn ink sketches, showing the same distress, concern, confusion, and joy. Ultimately, Frank blithely demonstrates that it was all a phase by quickly shedding his swimming gear when a pretty new pullet arrives. Parents of wayward children may be reassured, but for younger readers of independent stripe, the message here seems more than a little condescending. Still, it is a story about a chicken in a wetsuit, as only King-Smith could conceive. (Fiction. 8-10)