SQUID IN PANTS

A fashion-loving cephalopod goes in search of undies.

Squid craves clothes—especially the tighty whities seen in an ad. Squid’s three stalwart friends Crab, Turtle, and Fish grab some clothes hanging over the side of a young snorkeler’s boat, and a shower of garments floats down. Crab snags a tank top and with a “SNIP! CLIP!” transforms it into a crop top; the raincoat is big enough for three of the sea creatures. After donning the pants, Squid has an “accident” (“I inked”), so Crab offers to swap outfits. But Squid can’t quite control the ink flow, and soon it’s covered everything. Never mind: The four friends aren’t dismayed and decide to adorn the clothes with bows made from eels. Then the angry, tan-skinned snorkeling kid in the boat dives down to reclaim the pilfered clothes: Uh-oh! Squid trades the clothes for the child’s pair of briefs and shares them with the others. Everyone shows off in an undersea parade with other dressed-up creatures. The characters are all big-eyed and smiley. Colorful, sea-tinted pages and free-floating compositions pack a lot of action onto each page, along with surprising rhymes rocking in a four-beat wave-rhythm. Fun to read aloud, this graphic novel will inspire beginners to plunge into reading on their own.

A rollicking, ridiculous rhyming adventure bound to be in high demand.