TOAD AWAY

In his third outing (Toad Rage, 2004; Toad Heaven, 2005), Limpy the cane-toad peacenik travels all the way to the Amazon in search of an end to the bitter “war” humans seem determined to fight against all his ugly kind. Deciding that the secret to peace, if there is one, must be with his remotest ancestors, Limpy (along with his militant, dimwitted cousin Goliath and brilliant little sister Charm) leaves behind his carefully-tended stacks of dried out, road-killed “rellies” for distant South America. But rather than landing in the expected haven, he finds the jungle teeming with “thousands of creatures trying to hurt and maim and kill each other and eat one another’s brains.” As it happens, there actually is a solution to war there, too. Suffice it to say that Goliath’s seemingly suicidal urge to attack humanity by scratching the finish on its cars and peeing in its drinks actually turns out to have some merit. There’s a pacifist message somewhere beneath all the casual killing, poo jokes and warty angst in this slash-and-burn satire; maybe some readers will be able to see it. The appended glossary of Aussie slang is anything but superfluous. (Fantasy. 11-13)