Gr 2-4-Imagine the outcome if Dr. Seuss, Dav Pilkey, and Lane Smith were locked in a room until they came up with a book for beginning or reluctant readers. These nine rhyming stories have action galore, plenty of dialogue, and ample pen-and-ink illustrations, all wrapped up in humor. From the cat that is indeed flattened by a bat-wielding rat, to Unlucky Lou who lands in the prickle bush, to the evil bee, the rhymes keep coming. Denton's artwork seems slapdash, but perfectly parallels the zany humor. Few books of this length sport so much white space, large type, and spot art. Even young people who are struggling to get the hang of reading may happily handle all 176 crazy pages.-Pat Leach, Lincoln City Libraries, NE (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

" 'Alas! Alack!' said Harry Black. / 'I cannot give that yak a whack! / or he'll attack me with that tack!' " The creators of the aptly titled Just Disgusting (2004) reunite for nine rhymed romps, including the adventures of ducks Chuck and Buck and a muck-sucking truck, Ed and Ted co-habiting a shed and the pursuit of the ill-fated titular feline by a rat with a baseball bat. Paired to a few lines of primer-sized verse on each page, Denton's scribbly line drawings of frantic, stick-limbed figures add appropriately frenetic touches. Definitely not your parents' easy reader, but perfect for fans of Lane Smith's Happy Hockey Family (1993). (Poetry. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Griffiths's (The Day My Butt Went Psycho!) innovative book for beginning readers collects nine short, intentionally silly snippets propelled by kid-pleasing, tongue-tripping verse. In the title tale, a cat sitting on a mat decides to chase a rat, who grabs a baseball bat: "Around and around and around the mat the rat chased the cat with the baseball bat until... KERSPLAT!" Other protagonists also encounter tongue-in-cheek adversity. Friends Ed and Ted and Ted's dog Fred survive a tumble off a cliff, a near-drowning and ingestion by a whale. Lou, "the unluckiest girl that the world ever knew," becomes covered in a kangaroo's glue and then lands headfirst in a "prickle bush." And pals Bill and Phil roll down a hill, landing in a puddle of smelly pig swill. Griffiths's bouncy cadence and wacky wordplay occasionally sound derivative of Dr. Seuss, as when a hog reprimands a speeding dog and frog: "Racing is NOT allowed in my bog! Not on a log! Not on a cog! No log-racing frogs! No cog-racing dogs!" And when Chuck the Duck's ice-cream truck gets stuck in the muck, Buck the Duck announces, "I can get your truck unstuck. I can suck up all the muck with the muck-sucker-upper on my muck-sucking truck!" Denton's edgy, stick-figure-filled sketches enhance the zaniness factor and the offbeat, ironic humor. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved