EARTHQUACK!
by Margie Palatini & illustrated by Barry Moser
The Archon of Alliteration, Palatini (Tub Boo Boo, 2001, etc.) scores again with this belly-quaking, thigh-slapping, earth-shaking take on “Henny Penny,” starring Chucky Ducky, Lucy Goosey, Vickie, Nickie, and Rickie Chickie, Sue Ewe, and other farmyard residents. The ground grumbles, the ground rumbles, then everyone takes a tumble: is it an earthquake? Enter Herman Ermine, ready to take advantage of the general panic—until he too takes a tumble. Moser (That Summer, p. 571, etc.) leaves the backgrounds in most of his full-page tableaux white or monochromatic, focusing attention on livestock that is at once naturalistically drawn, but with comically human expressions and body language. So what’s shaking (besides readers, that is)? Just Joel and Lowell Mole, on their subterranean way to San Jose to visit cousin Garret Ferret. No harm done here, except perhaps to lots of funnybones. (Picture book/folktale. 7-9)