KATRINA HYENA, STAND-UP COMEDIAN

What do you do when you’re fundamentally different from your peers?

Katrina doesn’t stand out from her pack in looks, but unlike other spotted hyenas, whose laughs signal danger, she chortles at everything ridiculous. A giraffe straddling a puddle for a drink? Snakes who have accidentally knotted themselves together? Katrina’s own shadow? All staggeringly funny. She fantasizes about performing a stand-up comedy routine but has little chance at finding a willing audience; the other hyenas are irritated by what they take to be Katrina’s constant false alarms and want her to stop laughing. Naturally, her dream is to make her too-grave clan giggle at her jokes. After the pack narrowly evades an attack from Gary the lion, who likes to eat hyenas with hot sauce, Katrina stages a show to relieve their stress. Despite the group’s initial resistance, she does make them laugh at some groanworthy jokes that will delight early readers. With just a few sentences per page, presented in well-spaced lines rather than daunting blocks of text, this snappily paced story is brimming with child appeal. The many amusing, soft-lined vignettes are tinged with cartoon anthropomorphism, and the warm sienna palette provides atmosphere.

Whether stage-struck or shy, readers will chuckle at the protagonist’s jokes and cheer for her determination and confidence.