GREEN WILMA, FROG IN SPACE

More than 15 years ago, Green Wilma made a splashy, absurdist debut (Green Wilma, 1993), and now Arnold has splendidly resurrected the young frog. The rhymed narration is as light as bubbles—“One morning Wilma woke to hear a buzzing in the sky. / She hopped into the air to catch a tasty little fly”—gently pushing along the story of Wilma’s accidental hoisting into an alien spacecraft and her subsequent return—posthaste, after she shoots her tongue at that same fly, which has worked its way aboard with Wilma. In contrast, however, the artwork has wonderful heft and presence. The wealth of panels holds evocative colors: dim in the innards of the spaceship, soft summer light at the frog pond. It is not surprising that there is a high degree of humor, from the bug eyes on the fly to Wilma being mashed into the spacesuit. What gives Wilma a touch of the special is her equanimity; after all, she finds herself in some pretty strange precincts, but she keeps her cool and her focus, even though she never gets the fly. (Picture book. 3-5)