ALL AFLOAT ON NOAH’S BOAT!

When the animals on the ark become bored and irritable, quick-thinking Noah proposes a talent show to give their energies an outlet. It’s a smashing success, as “the snakes both tied themselves in knots. / The leopards wiggled all their spots,” the toucans, elephants, crocodiles and other acts perform, and “the talent show was such a ball / there’s no room to tell it all.” Lines of text float across big, bright scenes of cartoon creatures cavorting aboard a vessel that’s striped like a beach umbrella and roomy enough to include a curtained stage. Closing with a burst of color brought on by a pair of newly hatched butterflies, last seen fluttering off toward the rainbow arcing overhead, this makes a particularly buoyant version of the world’s best-known cruise. (Picture book. 5-8)