Perry and Snow join a time-honored tradition with this gallery of annoying but elusive beasts, from the titular crusher of bagged junk food to the Scary-Hair Fairy and the nocturnal Snorist: “That sound is the Snorist. / It means that he chose / to sneak with his tuba inside your dad’s nose.” Featuring strong rhythms and (generally) exact rhymes, the verses make first-rate read-alouds, and Snow’s brightly colored, oddly proportioned and often deliciously messy cartoon figures add plenty of comical visual notes to each spread. Expect belly laughs aplenty, particularly from Shel Silverstein fans, and readers/listeners fond of Jack Prelutsky’s Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant! (2006), illus by Carin Berger, or other similar gatherings of imaginary creatures. (Poetry. 9-11)
