Rhyme Crime

As he did in Splat!, Burgerman takes a wacky premise and dashes with it%E2%80%94with panache. The rhyming ruckus gets rolling when, "Once upon a time, a thief committed a crime./ Everything he stole was replaced with a rhyme." Initially pictured only as a spindly hand in silhouette reaching into vividly colored pages, the villain targets a gaggle of cockeyed characters, first replacing Hammy's brand-new hat with a cat (revealed by a flip of the page). Burgerman ratchets up the visual absurdity in subsequent page turns, as Gumpop's head becomes a slice of bread, Moomoo's fancy clogs are exchanged for a pair of frogs, Dingle's sneeze morphs into a wedge of stinky cheese, and a crocodile appears on Marlow's face in place of his smile. The author playfully derails the rhyming guessing game when the bandit attempts to swap out an orange for%E2%80%A6? The culprit's futile efforts to find a rhyming replacement produce a string of fun-to-say nonsense words, which likely will inspire kids to chime in with their own variations. Another spontaneous, wryly subversive offering from Burgerman. Ages 3%E2%80%935. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Apr.)