ANIMAL CRACKERS FLY THE COOP

“The Brementown Musicians” is a wonderful bit of cleverness captured by the Brothers Grimm. Here O’Malley takes the folktale for a contemporary spin and has a high time with it. He follows the main architecture of the tale while ramping up the comedy. The animals aren’t just worn out, they’re ne’er-do-wells: The cat is no good at “claw enforcement,” the dog all bark and no bite, the chicken too pooped from her stand-up routine to lay eggs and the cow (instead of the donkey) has forgotten how to produce milk (call it “Milk of Amnesia”). The one-liners and zingers might have been heard in the Catskills resorts 50 years ago: “The farmer I worked for was so dumb, he plowed his field with a steamroller because he wanted mashed potatoes.” The author’s customarily meticulous artwork is particularly appealing and a good counterpoint to the story, tamping the brightness of the wordplay with illustrations that are moody with shadow, somewhere in look between an etching and a woodcut, though with fine line work that makes the characters immediate rather than dreamy. (Picture book. 4-8)