Rooster's Revenge (review)

Rooster, Bear, and Rabbit row away after a visit with their friends, the very odd couple Hen and Fox. Rooster is in a funk, and his humor is hardly improved by a giant wave that capsizes the boat and deposits them, with the assistance of some helpful turtles, at the mouth of a cave. There Rooster discovers a glowing blue ball, which he promptly purloins. With his friends in hot pursuit, he races through the cave, through a toadstool forest, and back to sea on an upturned mushroom. Back ashore, the blue ball hatches into a baby dinosaur, and the circle of friends is now a little bigger and much happier than ever. This wordless adventure is altogether more perplexing than its predecessor, Fox and Hen Together (BCCB 9/11). The nature of Rooster's snit is never explained, and the hatchling comes as no surprise, given that the blue ball is quite clearly an egg, sitting on a nest beside a dino skeleton. Why the egg glows, why the mushrooms glow, and how any of Rooster's actions constitute the titular "revenge" are anyone's guess. Still, there's a fair helping of fun to be had in following the chase across the long, horizontal panels of the dreamy fantasy landscape as lizards and bats and flying fish escort the trio to their cozy, happy ending.