Did You Eat the Parakeet?

May 21, 2018
Iacolina makes a strong debut with this playful, sly, rhyming whodunit. When a parakeet goes missing from his cage, the narrator, despite a lack of evidence, is certain that the culprit is the cat. “Did you eat the parakeet?” she repeatedly accuses. “Did he become a tasty treat?” she probes further, reminiscing about what a “dashing, handsome fellow” the bird was. Of course, the cat can’t talk back, but his expressions speak volumes as he semi-patiently endures the girl’s laments. With spare, direct text, simple line drawings, and an abundance of visual humor, Iacolina’s style is reminiscent of Mo Willems’s in his Elephant and Piggie series. When the cat clears its name by revealing that the bird has been on top of the girl’s head, where he’s been mirroring her gestures, all along, she apologizes for getting so carried away. It’s a perfect happily-ever-after ending; that is, until the girl starts to wonder: where has the mouse gone? Ages 4–6.

May 15, 2018
A stick child investigates a disappearance.The family parakeet is missing, and the pet cat is the prime suspect. The indignant child presses the blue kitty with more and more questions, but readers will spot the parakeet perched on the interrogator's head from the get-go. The text is presented in undistinguished rhyming couplets: "Did you eat the parakeet? / He was right there on his tiny seat! // He was singing a tune just an hour ago. / Did you eat him? I want to know!" The scratchy illustrations are spare, colored in pastel hues and placed on a white backdrop. The child has a large round head perched on a rectangle that seems to stand in as a dress, with stick arms and legs and small ovals for hands and feet; the child is pale-skinned and has long, straight, dark hair. This picture book is a bit of a one-trick bird, tipping its hand regarding the fowl's location too early and drawing out the discovery for far too long. The compositions don't change enough to engage the readers, and the rhyming couplets only stretch so far, leaving readers clinging to details--changes in the cat's expression, the pink mouse that sits in the protagonist's pocket--for something to keep them going as the extremely slight story unfolds.A long-winded and unappealing case. (Picture book. 3-5)

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