Chick and Brain: Egg or Eyeball? (Chick and Brain)

K-Gr 2--A bird named Chick, a goofy, underwear-clad human named Brain, and their friend Spot the dog return for another surreal graphic novel, a follow-up to last year's Smell My Foot. When Brain finds a white oval, he's convinced it's an eyeball, but an exasperated Chick tells him it's an egg--"I know because I was an egg. I am a baby chicken. And I came out of a lady chicken." Spot concurs with Chick and demands to eat the egg. The humor revolves around comical misunderstandings, Brain's intelligence (or lack thereof), Chick's insistence on good manners, and the ridiculous debate that becomes more and more absurd. Bell's colorful cartoons are equally hilarious; they get bigger and bolder as the action becomes increasingly frenzied. The story is divided into four chapters, with one to four panels per page. VERDICT For early readers (and grownups who read to them) who love funny tales; fans of the earlier installment will especially get a kick out of this one.--Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library