COME BACK SOON

This busily surreal tale will make readers feel as though they’ve walked in on the middle of a conversation. An architect elephant receives a “fish letter” from Icetown. The penguins in Icetown have requested his presence to honor him for the hotel he designed for them. He gladly comes, but forgets his suit. The penguins hurry to get one made for him, but in all the hastiness, Elephant rolls too fast on his snowball (Icetown’s mode of transportation) and crashes into the hotel. It takes a week to rebuild, but Elephant sees his friends through and all ends well. The frenetic story reads a bit like a child making it up: There was an elephant! And all these penguins! And they rode on snowballs! And the elephant built the penguins a hotel, but then he crashed into it! Both the ingenuous present-tense narration and the intricate, architecturally inspired black-lined drawings will bring to mind as well that famous French elephant who also buys a suit. The detail-filled illustrations challenge the eye, at once amazing and confusing. Undeniably well-meaning, but a bit of a mess. (Picture book. 3-6)