THE PERFECT PARTY

Sundry animals with a common goal squabble, shriek, and work it out.

It’s Little Robin’s birthday. The “other animals in the zoo” are planning a party. There’s nary a cage, zookeeper, or human; the “zoo” claim is merely a casual, forgettable premise that explains the wildly diverse animals hanging out together. There are roosters from Portugal, Jamaica, Nigeria, Germany, and China and frogs from North America, Poland, Iran, Korea, Thailand, and Italy. (Origins are conveyed textually.) When everyone tries to plan the party’s “perfect” music (“moosic,” says Mr. Cow from England) by belting their own song, it’s a “cacophany”—animals are “roaring, mooing, yelping, braying, squawking and meowing,” all in their respective languages. There is the same problem with food (“fooohhhuuod” says Mr. Owl from the United States): Shouts for curry, phō, egusi, and sadza; an artichoke, a croissant, and sushi fly through the air. Both tussles resolve with a quick, didactic message. Sing “to-ge-ther,” commands Ms. Water Buffalo, the din becoming a “grand melody” under her direction. Accidentally mixing all the foods somehow produces “the tastiest thing” Little Robin’s ever eaten. The cooperation lessons offer no applicable how-to’s—combining myriad international dishes into one mish-mosh-stew might not really taste superb—but Baum-Owoyele’s cheerful watercolors have a true party feeling. The small trim size overcrowds the animals, but their bright colors and keen-edged shapes, crisp and energetic against the white background, bounce with energy.

Busy, crowded, vibrant—like a party.