NO. 5 BUBBLEGUM STREET

The animal residents of No. 5 Bubblegum Street are an eclectic bunch.

An insect narrator offers readers a peek into apartments filled with baking monkeys, a houseplant-hoarding panther, a family of musical spiders, an adventure-loving hippo, and many more creative creatures, all living side by side as friends and neighbors. Translated from Polish, this slice-of-life story sequentially introduces the inhabitants of each household, all of whom contribute their special talents to a party at the end. Young readers may lose interest with the slow pace and sometimes wordy descriptions. Still, it’s worth taking the time to pore over the lively, detailed illustrations, rendered in bold colors in a charmingly childlike hand-drawn style. Each apartment is as unique as its residents, and many characters have a signature color or two, such as Mouse’s bright red-orange decor, the soothing blues and greens of Panther’s plants, and the gray and black hues used to depict Bat’s home. Everything comes together in a riot of color and pattern at the party. Many pages feature multiple small, labeled vignettes reminiscent of Richard Scarry’s Busytown books. The book also makes fun use of sound; birds squeak and tweet, Hippo snores, and the spiders play a homemade “accordiohorn.” In their joyful coexistence, these very different neighbors gently model acceptance and kindness.

A leisurely tale brought to life by illustrations that vibrate with color, sound, and movement.