NO PARTY POOPERS!

This picture book begins by listing every stereotype about every type of animal and ends by tearing them all down.

The color-coded dialogue starts with the words “Hey, let’s have a party!” but the panda who’s hosting rejects every guest its brown-bear co-host wants to invite. “The Lions?” the brown bear suggests in black type. “Always take more than their fair share,” the panda scoffs in blue. “The Peacocks?” ventures the brown bear. “Show-offs!” This pattern leads up to the only possible moral. Having given up on hosting a party, the two end up at a different party that surprises the panda: “Why didn’t you tell me our neighbors were so much fun? They weren’t at all like I expected!” It’s touching, but there are two problems. One is that the dialogue attribution is not always clear; the other is that the author tries to speak up for just about every species on Earth. A single page halfway through the book features beavers, hippos, kangaroos, and shrews. This would seem to be an illustrator’s dream job, but the animals look strangely generic. Far too many of them have pear-shaped bodies, as though they were all traced from the same template. And the pages feel a little too cramped. There are just too many monkeys in this barrel of monkeys.

This is a running gag that, sadly, just keeps running.