THE COOL CRAZY CRICKETS

In four short chapters, Elliott (An Alphabet of Rotten Kids, 1991) has created a breezy summertime read in which a group of friends form a club. It’s a hot summer day when Leo and Marcus decide to create a club with Miranda and Phoebe. The four youngsters debate amongst themselves, playfully bandying about names for the club such as “Doodles” and “Piñatas” until finally settling on “The Cool Crazy Crickets.” But now the question arises of where the club will reside. What’s a club without a clubhouse? After some searching they tape together two refrigerator boxes, each youngster contributing to the overall aesthetics of the hideout. As the blithesome tale proceeds, the group decides on their mascot—Noodles, the pet dog that scampers through the story—and, lastly, just what kind of club they are. This quandary proves to be the most irksome, but finally, as three of them are just about to abandon the clubhouse, Leo has a brilliant solution dubbing them the “F.F.L.” club: Friends For Life. Meisel’s (The Tortoise and the Hare, 1998, etc.) artwork is active and rollicking, depicting a multicultural cast of characters in flushed watercolors outlined in ink. Bringing to light carefree summer days and the intimacy of hideouts with good friends, Elliott highlights the benefits of working as a group and the rewards of compromise. (Picture book. 6-8)