BOY, CAN HE DANCE!

Stevens puts a time-honored message in a buoyant new setting: Tony's father is a hotel chef who expects Tony to become a chef, too; he has no sympathy with his son's greatest interest- -dancing—which he's done constantly since before he could walk. On the school bus, in the bathtub, and, most disruptively, when his father assigns him kitchen duties, Tony dances, juggling lemons, flinging carrots, tap-dancing through a mountain of potatoes—all deliciously depicted in Yalowitz's mock-solemn art. Then the hotel has an emergency shortage of one dancer for a gala banquet; while Dad cooks a delicious feast, Tony saves the show (in a parody of a school production with kids dressed as veggies) and wins his praise. Spinelli's narrative is lively with dialogue and comical slapstick details, entertainingly depicted in Yalowitz's signature style: nearly flat modeling; expressions evoked with the tiniest of features; people and objects, in arrested motion, across carefully designed spreads in lighthearted colors. Good fun. (Picture book. 4-8)