MARVIN WANTED MORE!

Like puffy clouds with smiling faces and sticklike legs, sheep gambol merrily upon sunlit green hills—all but Marvin, that is, who resents being slightly smaller and less athletic than average. So, he starts to eat: grass, trees, and hills at first, then on to all of Ireland, and finally the entire world. Ultimately, huge but lonely, he vomits it all back up (“BAAAAA!”) and rejoins his flock, now content with his lot. Theobald compensates, at least in part, for the unoriginal plot (see Henrik Drescher’s Boy Who Ate Around, 1994) and flimsy psychology with simply drawn, tongue-in-cheek scenes replete with irresistibly cuddlesome woolly baa-baas in lively colors on full-bleed, double-paged spreads. The art carries the humor—and the day. So call this a promising debut, with an underdeveloped storyline. (Picture book. 5-7)