THE LIZARD MAN OF CRABTREE COUNTY

Nothing ever happens in Crabtree County until the day James Arthur dresses up as a shrub, gets his underpants full of bugs, rushes down to the pond to rinse off, and is spotted by near-sighted old Miss Bunch who thinks he is a lizard man. James Arthur, not realizing her mistake, sets out to capture the lizard man, and in doing so, unknowingly leaves “clues” that others take as evidence of the lizard man’s existence. As the tongue-in-cheek tale gets more involved and absurd, it will have emerging readers predicting what happens next, following the action, and out-thinking James Arthur and the whole town. The vibrant oil illustrations often provide viewers with unusual perspectives, from a duck’s-eye-view of fire trucks to an overhead shot of James Arthur’s balloon dinosaur. This is terrific fun for story hours, with a droll text that is constantly rebutted by the pictures. (Picture book. 5-8)