A Busy Creature's Day Eating: An Alphabetical Smorgasbord

Willems's offbeat take on an ABC book follows a wide-eyed little-kid purple monster, dressed in striped PJs, enthusiastically eating its way through the day-and the furniture. The culinary adventure begins at the breakfast table: a is for "Apples!" (a dozen of them, all being juggled toward the creature's mouth), b is for "Berries!" (even more), and c is for "Cereal!" (the monster's whole face is in the bowl). Breakfast continues with "Doughnuts!" and "Eggs!" and then a well-timed narrative pause: what's next? Turn the page: "Furniture!" From here, the creature's consumption includes both food ("Ice Cream!") and not-food ("Jacket!"), all shown in cartoony, super-high-energy illustrations, most of them neatly contained in square or rectangular panels that add some comforting visual order to the proceedings. The voracious creature eats its way through the letter n before: "Ooooohhh... / POTTY!" A grownup appears ("Queasy?") and offers "Rice. Saltines. Tea." Feeling better after v (for "Vomit"), the creature is led to bed (and refreshingly, here z stands for "Zonked," not your typical zzzzzs). This being a Mo Willems book, Knuffle Bunny, the Duckling, Gerald and Piggie, and the Pigeon make cameo appearances. elissa Gershowitz