Q POOTLE 5

A burned-out rocket booster puts a kink in pudgy, green Q Pootle 5’s plans to make it to his friend Z Pootle 6’s birthday party on the Moon. That booster looks remarkably like a tin can in Butterworth’s simply drawn cartoons—and indeed, after a forced landing on Earth, Q Pootle 5 finds that a more or less empty can of cat food makes the perfect replacement part. Once Henry the cat has finished his supper, of course, he makes certain it is empty and it does the trick. No, not exactly rocket science, but the pictures are well stocked with page-filling disaster noises—including a four-page, giant-sized “sssscccrrreeeeeeeee . . .” that is Q Pootle’s landing—and helpful earthlings, mostly of the four-legged variety. An unfolding, poster-sized party scene brings up the rear of this droll close encounter of the silly kind. (Picture book. 5-7)