Your Birthday Was the Best! (The Curious Cockroach)

A friendly-faced cockroach with long, graceful antennae has a marvelous time at a child's birthday party in this gross-out comedy. "I joined in all the party games," the narrating insect explains, as Sala (Arno and His Horse) draws human kids of various skin tones bashing a piñata--and the cockroach holding a tiny stick, swiping gamely from a tree limb. Though readers begin to suspect that the insect isn't an invited guest, that doesn't bother the optimistic cockroach. It's so wiped out by its exertions, in fact, that it falls asleep on the birthday cake, a mint-green affair decorated with sprinkles and cherries. "You were so excited to see me," the cockroach recalls about its cake-top discovery, "You screamed." Sala draws a tight, horror movie-style close-up of the light-skinned child bellowing before a parent brings out the vacuum cleaner, and the plot thickens. Hutchings (Dragon!) reveals that far from being repulsed, the cockroach is charmed by what's on offer inside the vacuum in a book highlighting a character whose cheer is indomitable despite disadvantages of species and reputation. Ages 3-7. (Feb.)

K-Gr 2--Move over, Gregor Samsa; here's another cockroach poised for immortality! Hutchings voices a clueless, four-inch crawler with hairy legs, long antennae, huge eyes, and a big smile, who, seeing a party starting, joins in unnoticed until he is discovered snoozing on the cake. He believes the kids' screams show their joyful excitement to see him. Dad comes to the rescue with a much-feared vacuum that turns out to be a source of delicious food (not for the squeamish) within, and the relentlessly upbeat roach is subsequently reunited with lost family members in the garbage bin. He's happy to see them but eagerly returns to the festivities ("I knew you'd miss me") where--rinse and repeat. Sala's perfect, just-realistic-enough, bug's-eye illustrations underscore the deadpan gulf between the narrator's and the humans' perspectives. VERDICT Many young readers will find this side-splitting, and adults should get hold of their weak stomachs and prepare for multiple joyous readings.--Patricia D. Lothrop