After Squidnight

Fenske (I Will Race You Through This Book!) opens with a scene straight out of a creature feature. Working in spooky grays accented with bright teal (a tip-off, perhaps, that there's lightheartedness afoot), he shows an army of grim-eyed squids oozing their way from the water to a house where a child sleeps beside an open window ("From the surf/ a suckered hand/ drags itself/ onto the sand"). In a twist that's funny and more than a little moving, the squids aren't bent on terrorizing; they're frustrated artists determined to leave an enduring mark ("In water, squid art/ does not stay./ Inky drawings/ drift away"). Covering the house's surfaces with their art (even the sleeping kid gets a temporary tattoo), they evince a graffitist's inventive sense of context: a fish is sketched to look like it's being electrocuted by a wall outlet, a clothes hook turns cephalopod. The child is left to take the fall ("In houses, squid art/ cannot stay./ You have to wash/ it all away"), but there seems to be little resentment; in fact, the final image shows that insatiable creativity will always, eventually, find an appreciative audience. Ages 4-8. Agent: Carrie Hannigan, HG Literary. (July)

PreS-Gr 2--Fenske (Barnacle Is Bored) brings his oceanic humor to a tale of inky squid mischief. Shortly after midnight, when everyone's asleep, squids creep from the ocean to find a place to leave their marks since, "In water, squid art does not stay. Inky drawings drift away." The squids want to bring their art to you the reader, so they sneak into your house, leaving humorous graffiti all over the house's hallway, bathroom, kitchen, and of course, your room. They make their marks on the walls, and on your toys. The second-person narration engages readers from the outset, and with quippy rhyming pentameter, makes for a fun read-aloud that begs to be voiced in an ominous tone. With bold lines, the illustrations play with perspective and shadow, and use a minimalist palette of black, grey, and turquoise. The squids' drawings add their own oily, meta three-dimensional quality to the book. Just as dawn arrives, the last squid is shown slinking out the window, leaving "you" as culprit of the inky crimes. VERDICT Funny, doom-filled bedtime reading at its best.--Danielle Jones, Multnomah County Lib., OR