I AM PAPA SNAP AND THESE ARE MY FAVORITE NO-SUCH STORIES

"Whipped Up, Drawn and Dramatized" by the unpredictable Ungerer, a potpourri of one-paragraph nonsense narratives about animal characters with names like Arson Twitch, Sir Spiffy Loin, Mr. Lido Rancid, Mr. Tuber Sprout, and Dr. Stigma Lohengreen. Then there is Papa Snap, shown on the cover behind a huge beaked book and in the end disappearing (striped-trousered legs last) into a "very hungry sofa." Between there's a lush jungle (where Sir Spiffy, his pig's tail dangling vulnerably above a long, sinuous, open-mouthed snake, captures a rare carniverous flower), a sinking surreal battleship (hit by bathtub-navigating Arson with his slingshot), a disaster-crammed railroad station (where Mr. Sprout misses the train every morning because its clock is always five minutes ahead of his own), the fleshy protruding trunk that inspires Andy Rondak's "Holy kayak, there is an elephant in my igloo," rotten (store-boughten) birds' eggs, junk, clutter, glut, corpulence, catastrophe, and physically palpable absurdity. With none of the elegance or story interest of Zeralda's Ogre (1967) or The Beast of Monsieur Racine (p. 806, J-292), all of this unbuttoned Ungerer might gross you out (see Mr. Slop Glut's gastronomic indulgence) but there is enough sly drollery on every page to keep anyone turning.