BARTLEBY OF THE BIG BAD BAYOU

Tiny but tough, Bartleby the red-eared turtle is back. His friendship with Seezer the alligator, cemented by their long trip down the Mississippi and the shared menace of the current occupants of Seezer’s native bayou, is threatened by a dry spell in their new home in a cypress swamp. Furthermore, his lady friend, the beautiful Lucky Gal, has disappeared into the woods. Captured and confined in a restaurant fountain, Bartleby is happy to find Lucky Gal there, too, but misses his freedom. Throughout this simply told story, Bartleby’s perseverance and his ability to make friendships pay off, as he escapes from the formidable Old Stump and his three guard gators, the easy life of captivity and a wily and hungry alligator garfish. Readers of Bartleby’s earlier adventures in Bartleby of the Mighty Mississippi will find this similarly satisfying. Floca’s lush black-and-white drawings introduce each section and a map that illustrates the neighborhood. (Fiction. 8-11)