CHICKS RUN WILD

Here is a bedtime story for all those tireless adults who would rather have their charges erupt from their beds to do a mad jig instead of peacefully drifting off to sleep. So make it a midday story, because it is a good bit of rollicking fun. Five chicks are safely tucked in bed, “beneath the sheets. / ‘Go to sleep now,’ Mama tweets. / Mama kisses each dear child, / but when she leaves…/ those chicks run wild!” The pleasant-enough, rhymed text is nothing out of the ordinary, but it admirably does the job of gathering momentum—the gentle revving of its engine, the shift up to cruising speed, then the pedal to the metal. Jenkins takes the story at full throttle, too, with plenty of double-page spreads popping with energy and good cheer, and the characters are plain fun: The chicks look like they just stepped out of a chorus line of Peeps, while Mama might have been minted by the Looney Tune crowd. Her face when she catches the chicks faking sleep is a delight. Like a shot of caffeine between covers, it makes for a bracing read-aloud. (Picture book. 2-5)