EWE AND AYE

A sporty sheep and an equally sporty primate find a way to realize a common aspiration: to fly. 

New readers will find the homophones appealing and the brief text amusing. “Ewe and Aye were different. / Ewe loved wheels, and Aye loved wings.” Though the jacket notes will have to be consulted to understand that Aye is an aye-aye lemur (and perhaps to learn a ewe is a female sheep), once that is established, the resulting wordplay is pretty funny. Ryan’s punning is nicely expanded in Ruble’s zippy illustrations. Ewe seems quite nimble and Aye quite jolly, with their sneakered feet and round goggles making them look like kindred spirits. Ruble's rich, flat colors and simple, solid cartoon shapes are appropriately comical and keep the action going. The two communicate their plan in pictographs. A double gatefold offers a chance to show the two splendidly aloft among bubbly clouds: “…there’s nowhere Aye and Ewe can’t fly,” though the first part of that sentence (“And now together”) is positioned awkwardly on the right side of the closed page opening. And their exuberant shout of “Weeeeeeeeee!” seems to break the homonymic theme, though it works anyway. Young readers may want to turn right back to the beginning to see how all the silliness fits together so neatly.

Lots of fun.