ANIMAL STEW

A deceptively simple cumulative tale about an enormous giant (Eva) who collects bigger and bigger animals and puts them into a sack, where a flap reveals them becoming increasingly crowded and scared. Then, it's into the pot; but while Eva is grinding the pepper, ``Frog ate the caterpillar, Fox ate the frog,'' and so on until everybody's inside Bear. The pepper makes Bear sneeze; ``out shot Crocodile,'' also sneezing, and soon all five animals are out the door, leaving hungry Eva to dine on pepper soup. Both the lighthearted text and the broadly comic cartoons are truly funny—this is a flap book that offers an appealing story and makes unusually creative use of its popular format. The bold, cartoon-style illustrations are perfect for group sharing. (Picture book. 2-6)