voted the world’s ugliest animal,” writes
Olien, mimicking the straightforward
tone of an informational children’s book.
The blobfish erupts into tears, but its
fellow deep-sea creatures come to the
emotional rescue. “I know how you feel,”
says the northern stoplight loosejaw,
spiky teeth agape. “Everyone thinks I’m
scary, but I’m really small and nice.”
Blobfish’s antics and wildly vacillating
emotions are what make the book so much
fun, but the photographs of and information about ocean life gives it additional
depth, so to speak. Ages 4–8. Agent:
Brianne Johnson, Writers House. (May)
Chicken in Space
Adam Lehrhaupt, illus. by Shahar Kober.
Harper, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-236412-8
Zoey, a headstrong and imaginative
chicken with an aviator cap, persuades a
pig named Sam to fly into space with her
on a “ship” that’s really a basket tied to a
bunch of helium balloons. The basket
actually gains some altitude, and the view
Kober (The Flying Hand of Marco B.) provides—a Grant Wood–esque landscape at
sunset—really is magical; the story itself
seems to hover for a moment to let readers
take it in. Close encounters with a baseball (“An asteroid!” says Zoey in full pre-tend-play mode), a kite (“A comet”), and a
flock of birds (“Alien attack ships”) send
the basket back to Earth. Back at the
barnyard, Sam recounts the adventure to
their fellow barnyard animals and gives
Zoey all the credit, noting that she
“always finds a way.” Lehrhaupt’s (Please,
Open This Book!) nonjudgmental tone is a
breath of fresh air, and while the ending is
lackadaisical, it’s a pleasure to spend time
with an intrepid character who gets to see
her goofy dreams through. Ages 4–8.
Author’s agent: Alexandra Penfold, Upstart
Crow Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Justin
Rucker, Shannon Associates. (May)
Excellent Ed
Stacy McAnulty, illus. by Julia Sarcone-Roach.
Knopf, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-553-51023-2
Ed, a scruffy white dog whose tail
seems to be in a perpetual state of wag-
ging, worries that he doesn’t measure up
to the African-American family he lives
with. The Ellis children are talented ath-
letes, bakers, ballerinas, and more, and
even when Ed hits on things that he does
excel at, the children show him up. “I’m
definitely excellent at breaking stuff,”
thinks Ed as Sarcone-Roach (The Bear Ate
Your Sandwich) shows him in the midst of
a kitchen with garbage and glassware
strewn across the floor. But then Elaine
goes and “breaks” a soccer record. And
while Ed is good at losing (objects he
buries) and forgetting (to wipe his paws),
the twins lose their first teeth, and Edith
aces a dance audition by forgetting to be
nervous. Dominated by bright yellows
and grassy greens, Sarcone-Roach’s
mixed-media pictures brim with familial
warmth and mischievous canine energy,
while McAnulty (the Dino Files series)
leaves readers with the worthwhile mes-
sage that it sometimes takes an outside
perspective to recognize one’s strengths.
Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Lori Kilkelly,
Rodeen Literary Management. Illustrator’s
agent: Paul Rodeen, Rodeen Literary
Management. (May)
I Love Cake! Starring Rabbit,
Porcupine, and Moose
Tammi Sauer, illus. by Angie Rozelaar.
HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-
0-06-227894-4
Nothing brings buddies together—or
potentially splits them up—like cake. In
this good-natured friendship tale,
Rabbit, Porcupine, and Moose are the
best of pals, fitting comfortably into their
respective roles. “I’m good at being the
boss,” says Rabbit. “I’m good at having
fun,” says Porcupine. “I’m just Moose,”
says Moose, the jokester of the bunch.
When Rabbit throws herself a birthday
party, Moose can’t think about anything
but cake, and his sweet obsession leads to
a party disaster, a reluctant mea culpa,
and an attempt to make amends. Sauer
(Roar!) sprinkles humorous asides from
the characters between the straightforward narration that moves the story
along. Moose’s confessional monologue,
which appears in a page crammed with
all-caps text, is laugh-out-loud funny (“Is
it my fault my mouth’s so big that the
whole cake kind of fell right in?” he
wails). In mixed-media art accented with
candy hues, Rozelaar’s (Don’t Call Me
Sweet!) wide-eyed critters match the
buoyancy of the story with playfully
expressive faces and body language. Ages
4–8. Author’s agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea
Brown Literary Agency. Illustrator’s agent:
Eunice McMullen. (May)
The Seven Princesses
Smiljana Coh. Running Press Kids, $16.95
(40p) ISBN 978-0-7624-5587-4
Part of a large, multiracial royal family,
Coh’s seven princess sisters couldn’t be
closer—until they have “the biggest fight
in the entire history of princess fighting.”
Readers will quickly assess that it’s just a
typical silly sibling squabble, but it sets
off a chain reaction, starting with music-loving Orellia insisting that aspiring
fashion designer Amaryllis “got sequins
inside her trombone” and ending with the
sisters retreating to separate, custom-made castle towers, and the whole
kingdom in a funk. The breach is finally
healed when Violet sets off another chain
reaction, this time involving an old
drawing of the group that brings to mind
“all the spectacular times the sisters had
spent doing everything together.” This
picture gets passed from sister to sister,
triggering more fond memories and
acting as a kind of peace treaty. Coh’s
(Princesses on the Run) lively parade of spot
drawings, expressionistic sketches, and
elaborately rendered spreads (including
one that requires readers to hold the book
vertically) make the pages fly by. There’s
plenty to love for princess fans, especially
since the girls have such a broad range of
looks and interests. Ages 4–8. (May)
★ The Chameleon That Saved
Noah’s Ark
Yael Molchadsky, trans. from the Hebrew by
Annette Appel, illus. by Orit Bergman.
Penguin/Paulsen, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-
101-99676-8
Life on the ark keeps Noah and his
family hopping, but he still cares about
every creature on board, and the chameleons have him worried. “They’ve tried to
feed them everything,” writes debut
author Molchadsky, “seed and roots, nuts
and fruits—but they refuse every dish.”
Noah carries one of the chameleons
around in hopes of finding out what
pleases these finicky eaters, but it takes
serendipity to reveal the answer: when the
chameleon is inadvertently placed in close
proximity to some worms that are
spoiling the food stores, she sticks out her
long, sticky tongue and “with a flick and a
