THIS IS A HOSPITAL, NOT A ZOO!

A perfectly silly take on the indignities of a hospital stay. Armed with a box of magical animal crackers, Filbert MacFee has the perfect defense against all the pricks and pokes: He can turn into whatever animals he eats. Threatened by a hypodermic needle, he turn into a rhinoceros who says, “Try to put a needled through that!” A penguin is appropriate for a frigid wheelchair and it’s hard to get a spoonful of medicine into the mouth of a giraffe. Filbert keeps the staff hopping with his pranks, and things really get wild when—in the guise of an unhappy orangutan—he offers an animal cracker to his doctor, who turns into an orangutan, too. The two enjoy a rousing rumpus until (back to himself), Filbert is pronounced well enough to go home. The snappy text, featuring quirky characters and understated humor, works well with Truesdell’s loosely drawn, larger-than-life animals who pop up at the turn of a page. (Picture book. 4-8)