MUK 'N' HONEY

Inventive friends construct some improbable gizmos.

The starring animal pair, a moose and a rabbit (made of golden honey, always melting but never depleted), fear for their latest creation. They left their Triple-Decker Hunger Wrecker (eight cheeses, sprinkles, and a hot-dog center) cooking in their treehouse, but Honey Bunny has accidentally wrecked the stairway. How will they return to the treehouse? Honey Bunny is too hungry to think, and Muk Muk can’t devise a solution without his tools. Necessity proves the mother of invention; other forest denizens approach the pair with problems, and Muk Muk and Honey Bunny rummage through the detritus of the damaged stairway to come up with wacky devices—which just may help them resolve their own issue. A pair of “Springy-Sproingy Hop-o-Matics,” strapped to Muk Muk’s hooves, allow the moose to soar through the air and retrieve a fig for a frog friend’s breakfast, but they don’t get him high enough to reach the treehouse. Makeshift stilts, built to wade into a briar patch to retrieve a stranded hedgehog, prove similarly problematic. Will the two finally succeed? Though this tale isn’t as maniacally illustrated as some of Bean’s other work, it still features dense colors and enjoyably slapstick scenes. The writing is lively and accessible, the characters successfully differentiated, and the pacing steady: This new series should find willing fans.

Zany adventures to delight aficionados of the absurd.