Hungry Roscoe

Tired of subsisting on society’s scraps, a raccoon named Roscoe tries to sneak into the local zoo, where the animals “get fresh food every day.” Unfortunately, the surly zookeeper isn’t making that easy—in a pair of scenes of Looney Tunes–style cartoon violence, the zookeeper punts Roscoe out of the zoo with a “Bop!” and a “Biff!” (Readers may wonder why a man who kicks raccoons is employed at a zoo to begin with.) Rendered in a pastel palette, debut talent Plant’s mischievous scenes recall zoo tales like Peggy Rathmann’s Good Night Gorilla, especially as Roscoe disguises himself to snag food (his penguin costume, which involves an ice-cream cone beak and a dirty blue jacket, leaves the actual penguins staring agog at him). It’s the zoo’s broadly grinning monkeys who finally come to Roscoe’s aid, offering him some food in exchange for the zookeeper’s keys. Suffice it to say, the zookeeper gets his just deserts: “What followed was not pretty,” deadpans Plant as bats, parrots, and a tiger terrorize zoogoers. Mild monkeyshines. Ages 3–7. (June)