Stylized, animation-style drawings emphasize the cartoon aspects of a fast-paced story. Meng (The Wonderful Thing About Hiccups) has fun with Penny, Polly and Molly, three free-spirited chicks who rile the rest of the barnyard with their unchickenlike ways (they don't preen, peck or cluck, and they rope roosters and peer under the hood of the farmer's tractor). Of course they save the day when the tractor's brakes fail and it heads straight for the barnyard. Suber (Milo the Really Big Bunny) excels at the cinematic portrayal of rapid movement: fence-posts shatter and the tractor gets some air as it hurtles toward the animals. There's little nuance: the animals are caricatures, with googly eyes and goofy grins, and the paisley-shaped chicks are distinguishable only by their decorative feathers. Kids will have fun with this story. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

PreS-Gr 2—When Penny, Polly, and Molly hatch, they are three tough chicks. They run around the farm ("Peep, peep, zoom, zip, cheep") to the consternation of the other animals and the farmer. From swinging on the cow's tail, roping the rooster, and peeking under the hood of the tractor, the feisty females elicit pleas from the farmer and critters to the chicks' mother, "Make them be good!" Mother Hen invariably replies, "They are good!" But they are restored to everyone's good graces when a runaway tractor almost crashes into the henhouse. The colorful acrylic illustrations—and chicks—dance across the pages in a variety of spreads and smaller vignettes. The frenetic barnyard action is barely contained within the pages. The repetition in the text will make this a good choice for storytime sharing as well as independent reading. These chicks are mischievous enough to entice the most reluctant reader.—Marge Loch-Wouters, Menasha Public Library, WI