ORDINARY OSCAR

One little snail has big dreams. Fed up with eating all night and sleeping all day and being "greenish-grayish-brownish," Oscar dreams of being...famous! Neither his mother nor his father nor his 25 brothers and sisters can dissuade him. Oscar visits the Wise Old Snail (whose study is filled with such books as Lost Lettuce and Harry Slugpot & the Chamber of Salad) for advice. After warning Oscar that it's not easy, the Wise Old Snail passes on a bit of magic, and, before you know it, Oscar has summoned his Fairy Godsnail, who grants him three wishes. Just like that, he's big and bright and beautiful...and the perfect target for a hungry crow. He wishes himself bigger and finds himself in the city, larger than six buses and terrorizing residents, who scream for the army and the police. Oscar uses his third and last wish to get home, where his large family is happy to see him. Both Adkins and Hearn pack Oscar's folkloric odyssey with sly little jokes. Nonstop drollery for adventurous children and the adults who read to them. (Picture book. 3-7)