Sís’s hallucinogenic art takes Prelutsky’s ever-clever comic verses in new directions in this topflight returning superstar collaboration (The Gargoyle on the Roof, 1999, etc.). A pair of young tourists accepts the poet’s invitation to visit Scranimal Island, uncharted home to such hybrid curiosities as leafy Spinachickens, blobby Hippopotamushrooms, a pride of Broccolions, and the sedentary Potatoad: “It does not move, it does not think, / It does not eat, it does not drink, / It does not hear or taste or touch . . . / The POTATOAD does not do much / . . . To pose immobile by a road / Suffices for the POTATOAD.” Using pale tones overall, but adding flashes of brighter color, Sís depicts the 19 vegemals (anitables? flauna?) and their surroundings in typically obsessive detail; he also creates an aerial view of the entire island that rewards careful examination, and tiny bits of background business for sharp-eyed viewers to spot. Prolific they may be, but poet and illustrator have never done better work than this hilarious, inventive cousin to Edward Lear’s nonsense botany and zoology. (Poetry. 7-12)
