Danny McGee Drinks the Sea

In the tradition of the old lady who swallowed the fly, Judith Kerr's The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and Jack Kent's The Fat Cat, Stanton and Layton play with the idea of a huge appetite as an objective correlative of the rollicking ego of a preschooler. Young Danny decides to drink the sea--and that's only the beginning. The little redhead's exploits move from goofy ("And he swallowed a cat / who was drinking some tea") to tall tale ("And he swallowed the mountains, / and every last tree") to absurdist ("And he swallowed the people / and that includes me. / And I'm writing this book inside Danny McGee") at just the right pace, slow enough for us to savor the mixed-media illustrations and fast enough to forestall questions of logic. The rhymes roll along in nonstop dactyls, and Danny just keeps getting more and more gleeful. The big-eater story usually ends with evisceration, regurgitation, or death, but this iteration holds a big surprise. (Never underestimate a smart older sister.) Adult readers may winkle out some political satire ("And he swallowed America, / land of the free"), and one illustration's reliance on cultural stereotyping is highly unfortunate. But the main audience is more likely to resonate with the glorious pleasure of being bad and the outlandish humor of the pictures. sarah ellis