TERRIFIC

Plainly channeling Jack Benny, middle-aged Eugene responds glumly to various reversals of fortune—after winning a cruise to Bermuda: “Terrific. I’ll probably get a really nasty sunburn”—until a shipwreck (“Terrific. I’ll probably get devoured by sharks”) strands him on a tiny island (“Terrific. Now I’ll get eaten by cannibals”). There he meets a parrot who knows something about both boatbuilding and friendship. Cast as a scowling curmudgeon with thinning hair and conservative taste in dress, Eugene looks the part too—at least until the end, when a reunion with his beaked buddy draws both a smile and a “Terrific!” delivered with a radically different inflection. Fans of James Stevenson’s tales of the “Worst Person in the World” will find a kindred sort here and are sure to add the adjective to their vocabularies. (Picture book. 6-8)