FIONA RAPS IT UP

A story brimming with mimicry and mockery about Fiona, a flamingo who misses ``an important left turn'' and is separated from the flock; she lands on a banana boat whose captain has a flair for hip-hop: ``Well, crash my boat/and make me nervous!/I'm the Rappin' Cap'n/at your service.'' As she leaves the boat with the egg she has just laid, Fiona starts rapping herself, and she doesn't stop until she has walked all the way to Bolivia, passing different dangerous animals on the way. She reaches her flock and her husband, Fletcher, just as her egg hatches and out comes little Floyd, already singing his own rap songs. Remkiewicz's cartoons are full of bright, tropical colors, and his animals are real characters. But above all, the tall and thin Fiona (reminiscent of Olive Oyl) is an ideal subject for comic postures. The lickety- split text—half-prose, half rapping—has a witty, colloquial feel, and not one dull moment. Especially during the rap bits, readers will want to chant it out loud. Kids will love this book. (Picture book. 4+)