ROADSIGNS

Proud Hare gets his comeuppance again, this time leading (at least until the end) slow-but-steady Tortoise along a winding, mostly paved road liberally endowed with large, standard cautionary and directional signs. In a near absence of narrative text, it’s the signs, as much as Haskamp’s spread filling, neatly brushed acrylics, that tell the tale; while Tortoise toils along past cheerleaders brandishing even more signs (“Go Tortoise,” “Bad Hare Day”) and multiple road hazards, Hare takes wrong turns, can’t tell the ladies’ room from the men’s at a “Rest Area,” is diverted by a passing “Circus Train,” and puffs up to the “Finish Line” just too late. Younger readers will find both visual jokes and plenty of reading practice in the pictures—and as a double lagniappe, not only is the race’s entire course laid out on the endpapers, but many of the signs are reprised (with discreet explanations for the more obscure) on the final page. Open this engaging debut for the illustrator and there’ll be “No Stopping.” (Picture book. 4-7)