FOXY AND EGG

With expert comic timing, Smith sets vulpine Foxy DuBois up for a tasty turnabout after a mouthwatering guest comes to visit. When a small polka-dot egg appears on her doorstep, Foxy invites him in (“for a BITE to eat”) and then dashes off to the kitchen to contemplate the culinary possibilities. But why settle for just a snack? After whipping up a massive meal of fattening desserts (“Egg wobbled with excitement”) Foxy beds Egg down, then retires to a night of eggy dreams in anticipation of a yummy breakfast. Breezily leaving it to viewers to pick up on the absurdity of a faceless Egg capable of happily chatting and chowing down with his salivating hostess, the author/illustrator adds a pinch of melodrama by staging the tête-à-tête in a Victorian-style house stocked with poultry-themed knickknacks, embellishes Foxy’s dreamscape with a leggy feathered chorus line and finally dishes up a double whammy the following morning in the form of a hugely swollen Egg that hatches out—well, not quite the entrée Foxy had in mind. The photo-collaged illustrations will remind many of Lauren Child, but the humor is distinct, enhanced by a cinematic introduction that reveals that the part of Egg is played by newcomer Edward L’Oeuf, with Vivien Vixen as Foxy DuBois. Delicious, for all that it’s something of a literary hors d’oeuvre. (Picture book. 5-7)