One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree

It's never a good day to be eaten, but when a hungry snake swallows a brown-skinned boy in "the shade of the eucalyptus, eucalyptus tree," the child doesn't skip a beat. From inside the snake's "belly dark and deep," the boy cannily advises the snake to gorge away: "There is room, so much room./ Go ahead, please enjoy!" Down the hatch go wide-eyed critters big and small, each one proving once again that Wenzel (Beastly Babies) knows how to mix his media: there's a luxuriously whiskered cat, a sloth with a sweaterlike coating of moss, "an ape eating grapes,/ lounging like a queen," and a very big bear. Debut author Bernstrom eschews the usual rhythmic recapping common to cumulative tales, instead drawing in readers with lilting refrains and exuberant wordplay ("Up, up snaked the snake/ from his place in the leave,/ and gobbled up the bear/ with the qually-wally hair"). The book's rhythms are perfectly suited to reading aloud--as is the enormous onomatopoeic regurgitation that sends the swallowed creatures back into the daylight. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. Illustrator's agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (May)

PreS-Gr 2--"One day in the leaves/of the eucalyptus tree/hung a scare in the air/where no eye could see." A large yellow snake with purple forked tongue lies in wait for its next meal. Along comes a wide-eyed little boy, who gets gobbled right up. "'I'll bet, ' said the boy, /in the belly dark and deep, /'that you're still very hungry/and there's more you can eat.'" And so, with the clever tyke's encouragement, the greedy predator proceeds to eat a bird with a worm, a cat, an ape eating grapes, a bear, a hive full of bees, and a fruit with a fly. "Gurgle-gurgle came a blurble/from that belly deep and full..." and out exit the animal's victims, leaving the regretful snake with a "crummy tummyache." The digitally created art features full spreads depicting the ever-inflating snake and its alarmed victims on the recto and the boy and the other victims cloaked in the darkness of the snake's belly on the verso. Children will enjoy the rhythms of the musical text and eagerly anticipate each new meal, reveling in the inevitable outcome. VERDICT Pair this title with any version of "There Was an Old Lady" for a satisfying storytime.--Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools