SLUGS

What can you do with a slug? Well, ""Swallow a Slug/ By its rail or its snout/ Feel it slide down/ Feel it climb out//Nibble on its feetsies/ Nibble on its giblets/Nibble on its bellybutton/ Nibble on its riblets."" Or: ""Dissect a Slug with scissors/Poke one with a tweezer/ Pop one in the microwave/Freeze one in the freezer."" Or: ""Fat slugs/ Skinny Slugs/ Sad Slugs/ Grinny Slugs//Dimpled ones/ Crinkled ones/ Gimpled ones/ Wrinkled ones/ Slugs are very beautiful/ Even chubby pimpled ones."" In one or another familiar nonsense-rhyme pattern, Greenberg rings variations on the infinite adaptability of--inspiredly--the slippery, slightly unsavory, all-the-more-shivery slug. And Victoria Chess is the very one (one of the only ones, probably) who can make the slugs into variously witchy, manic, or woebegone personalities. The limitation, of course, is that the book remains a catalogue, and essentially static--until the last few pages when the Slugs get diabolical revenge for ""how you've treated"" them. Fun to look at, so-so to listen to.