LOCUST POCUS!

McKelvey’s rhymed menagerie of creepy-crawlies falls somewhere between a single poem and a collection, as the verses vary in meter and rhyme, but are not given separate titles. Frequent changes in size, shape, and placement of individual words give the pages an overworked design, and the writing doesn’t exactly scintillate either: “The praying mantis / prays for prey, / her bug gourmet / a prayer away.” Say what? Fans of Egielski’s Jazper (1998) will find a similar cast of multilegged but otherwise just about human critters here. Unfortunately, queasy scenes of boys and girls sleeping while giant spiders and mosquitoes have their way, or finding oversized roaches in the breakfast cereal, and head lice building permanent settlements, come close to open conflict with the verses’ breezy tone. Definitely an also-ran next to Douglas Florian’s Insectlopedia (1998) and Kurt Cyrus’s Oddhopper Opera: A Bug’s Garden of Verses (p. 329). Only for those who like to go “eeyew.” (Picture book. 6-8)