Mousestache Moosestache

All the world’s a ’stache in this enthusiastic follicular fantasy from Watkins (Go-Go Guys), who sprouts mustaches on absolutely everything. A genteel mouse and moose with pert mustaches open, asking, “How do you DO-stache?” And subsequent pages prove that the bristles’ tickling transformation is not beyond the reach of any thing or being. A residence grows a housetache, “frockstaches” appear on clothing, timepieces sport “grandfather clockstaches,” and “migrating flockstaches” positively ripple across avian wingspans. As readers are drawn into the work’s escalating energy, one spread features a passel of mustachioed bananas and pineapples kicking up heels (“dancing in bootstaches,/ Some strumming lutestaches”). Throughout, soft-toned pencil and pen illustrations maintain a poker-faced matter-of-factness, even at peak absurdity (“Peppermint planestaches/ Daydreaming brainstaches”). But somehow, each mustache is as ennobling as it is surprising, bestowing creatures and inanimate objects alike with implied inner lives and, above all, a goofy but unmistakable dignity. In a world that frequently insists on conformity, this hair-raising work insists on letting one’s ’stache fly. Ages 4–8. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary. (Apr.)