Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 061805183X, Hardcover)

The creator of Polkabats and Octopus Slacks puts his playful pen to paper again in Dutch Sneakers and Fleakeepers. Calef Brown's story-poems are nonsensical and exuberant, and his muted, sophisticated Cubist paintings join the party with equal zeal. Did you know that fleas "learn to speak German / more quickly than bees"? Or that "bad teeth" aren't really bad, they just need "a cleaning and something to chew"? No, resist the impulse to look for lessons: Brown--a hip, modern Edward Lear--is here to have fun. Children will adore meeting the feared "Tattlesnake" (with unusual stripes and big ears), an electric-guitar-playing grandmother, a runaway waffle, a mysterious fish ("Green like asparagus. / Flat like a dish"), Sir Dance-a-lot, and the rest of Brown's crazy--yes, crazy--cast of characters. (All ages) --Karin Snelson