NEVER TAKE YOUR RHINO ON A PLANE

Consider yourselves duly warned: Planes and rhinos are a poor fit—sometimes literally.

Not many folks have a pet rhino, but if you do, the young, brown-skinned narrator strongly cautions against flying with it. The child has a point, of course, and enumerates several reasons. Rhinos pack way too many belongings, dawdle on their way to the airport, and blithely ignore security lines. That’s pre-flight. Once in the air, matters don’t improve. The pachyderms wreak havoc by kicking the seat in front of them, pranking their neighbors, and sloppily eating their in-flight snacks. You’d think your problems might be solved after landing. You’d be wrong. (Don’t even ask about the chaos rhinos cause at the luggage carousel.) The rhino’s guardian concedes that the two of them have some fun once they arrive at their destination, but when it’s time to return home, the pair are turned away from the plane; looks like they’ll have to make their way back a different way. The rhymes are occasionally clunky, but children won’t mind; those with flight experience of their own will find the outlandish premise particularly amusing. The comically over-the-top illustrations, created with cut paper, oil pastels, and acrylic, will arouse guffaws; the bright blue rhino is quite endearing, and readers will easily forgive him for his naughty behavior.

A hilarious flight of fancy.