Squirrelly Gray

Here, alternative-comics-artist Kochalka looks to a younger audience with a mixed-format tale featuring a bored squirrel who has adventures once he turns his TV off. The rhymed text is not only clunky--"Young Squirrelly Gray lived in a tree / And spent his time in bed, / Just watching static on TV, / Quite bored out of his head"--but superfluous, as the art and dialogue in the accompanying cartoon panels tell the entire story. Venturing out into the gray, rainy world, Squirrelly rescues the Tooth Fairy from a spider web, gets a magic acorn in return and is then accosted by a hungry fox ("Are you in need of assistance, my succulent young fellow?"), who inadvertently breaks the nut open to release a dazzling rainbow across suddenly blue skies. It's all a bit slight, but the shiny cover, simply drawn art and jaunty protagonist will draw readers. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.