Playing outfield is boring, so Morton imagines himself in a jungle. Being a lion, zebra, or even a hippopotamus would be really great. Just as he realizes the drawbacks of each animal, he hears shouting: a fly ball's heading his way. Exuberant digitally painted pencil and pen-and-ink illustrations flesh out Morton's daydream. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Morton's imagination takes him on a wild adventure. Coach hollers at him to pay attention, but Morton (who looks about eight years old) never gets any action in deep right field. He wishes himself into a jungle, overgrown with colorful leaves, and soon he's a lion. Morton's lion is so raucous he scares away even the elephants. As a monkey, he gets tangled in vines, and his giraffe is confronted by a highly territorial snake. Similarly, his zebra, parrot and rhinoceros face daunting challenges. Maybe a walrus! Waitwalruses don't live in the jungle. Morton's dream is abruptly ended when a fly ball comes his way; can he catch it? Amanda Ellery's tale is simple but delicious, and accessible to very young readers. Husband Tom's expressive, Bill Peetesque illustrationsin colored pencil, pen and inkare all they should be: funny, original and so lively they virtually jump off the page. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

PreS-Gr 1-In an exuberant paean to imagination and daydreaming, Morton, first seen in If I Had a Dragon (S & S, 2006), returns as a bored baseball outfielder. He begins to imagine himself as a lion, monkey, giraffe, hippo, etc. Each baseball-capped creature has a certain wacky panache that is destroyed as the page is turned and the critter encounters a predator or unexpected situation that makes it much less palatable to be that animal. Undeterred, Morton imagines himself as another denizen of the jungle until he morphs into a walrus ("Wait a minute! Walruses don't live in the jungle!") and returns to reality as his teammates urge him to catch an incoming fly ball. The full-color pen, ink, pencil, and digitally rendered art is full of frenetic stop-action fun and sprawls across the spreads. The illustrator uses multiple perspectives to give free rein to a boy's imagination, and the cartoon characters will appeal to kids who enjoy fast action. With a text simple enough to entice new readers and a story silly enough to keep storytime groups entertained, this jungle jaunt will find a place in many collections.-Marge Loch-Wouters, La Crosse Public Library, WI Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.