THELONIUS MONSTER’S SKY-HIGH FLY PIE

Sierra takes a romping, rollicking rhyme to recount an amazing and vastly amusing culinary adventure. Intrigued by the taste of fly, the Thelonius the monster emails a spider (“a savvy insider”) about technique, makes a huge and sticky crust and goes forth to gather flies. (Sierra’s rhymes are fabulous, even to rhyming “sewer” and “manure.”) Thelonius invites “eleventeen monsters” to partake, but since he’s neglected to bake it, the pie buzzes and then takes off, the flies’ feet come unstuck and the crust lands to be deliciously devoured and praised by all—including the grateful flies. Koren’s irresistible and irrepressible monsters appear in their traditional black and white, with touches of acid green (the text and the flies’ wings are also in green). The pictures are as full of humor as the text: Thelonius uses both a computer and a quill pen; the flies stuck to the crust form an orchestra and chorus before they take off, and the signage is hilarious. Brimming with read-aloud possibilities, and not a single fly was injured in the performance of this tale. (Picture book. 3-8)