RATS ON THE ROOF

The author-illustrator of a fine array of comical easy readers, picture books, and creatively retold nursery tales adopts a new genre. With irreverent spoofs of contemporary themes, offbeat humor, snappy dialogue, and delightful plot twists, these seven brief animal stories are vintage Marshall. Two feckless sheep put a threatening wolf to sleep with their inane chatter; a huge mouse averts a tragedy by literally hurling a cat-intruder out of her wedding reception; a frog preens himself on his handsome legs until he reads an embarrassing French recipe; a convocation of birds prevents a rude but vegetarian brontosaurus from eating the tree where an owl has its nest when the birds crowd the tree and spoil the dinosaur's appetite by suggesting how awful they would taste. The villains are always foiled here, but the outcomes are deliciously unpredictable. Occasional b&w drawings extend the humorous characterizations. Sure appeal; a natural for reading aloud. (Fiction/Young reader. 6-10)