Lear’s rhymed introduction to a lonely treetop creature who gladly allows a menagerie of birds, plus such less familiar creatures as the Dong and the Pobble, to perch on his oversized hat exerts its accustomed magic: “And at night by the light of the Mulberry moon / They danced to the Flute of the Blue Baboon, / On the broad green leaves of the Crumpetty Tree, / And all were as happy as happy could be….” In color-drenched cartoons, Voce depicts the Quangle Wangle Quee as a koala, face nearly hidden beneath a huge, floppy hat decked with lace and ribbons, who presides over a swelling troop of smiling, pop-eyed guests. The first separate rendition of the rhyme since Janet Stevens’s 1988 edition, this makes a smile-inducing companion to Voce’s version of The Owl and the Pussycat (1991). (Picture book. 6-8)
