HAVE I GOT A BOOK FOR YOU!

Children with a taste for TV infomercials now have a literary equivalent to savor any time. Watt, creator of Scaredy Squirrel, dishes up toothy, toupee-topped super-hawker Al Foxword who, fresh from selling iceboxes to penguins and umbrellas to fish (“Al’s the best! The AQUA UMBRELLA changed my life!” exclaims a finned customer), delivers a high-pressure sales pitch for this very title—his “#1 BESTSELLER!” Are you a tough sell? Al is willing to work for your dollars, offering personal compliments, compelling rationales (“Say GOOD-BYE to boring books. You know the ones I’m talking about…”), an enticing premium, even ideas for what to do with multiple copies. And if all that doesn’t reel you in, he has one final trick up his sleeve. Looking like some sort of rodent and dressed in loud plaids, Al projects a personality as big as the emphatic exhortations plastered across the simply drawn, brightly colored scenes. Driven by a particularly artful use of page turns, this makes compelling reading. Have your credit card ready. (Picture book. 6-8)