In Unstoppable, Adam Rex's message goes down nice and easy as he keeps the banter fast and furious and the laughs front and center.
As Unstoppable begins, a lakefront crab scares off a predatory cat by snapping its claws. The cat sneaks up on a bird that flies to safety. Seeing this, the crab laments its inability to fly: "To soar, happy and carefree..." The bird isn't having it--"Do I look carefree? I almost got eaten by a cat"--and expresses envy for the crab's pincers. Suddenly the bird grabs the crab, takes to the air and a hybrid is born--"Crabbird!" or maybe "Birdrab!" After they trounce the cat, they pick up a turtle ("Craburtlebird!") and then a bear ("Craburbearbird!"). When the animals spy some trucks demolishing the lakefront in order to build a shopping mall, they use their combined strength to get the U.S. president involved, and then Congress. With friends like this, who needs superpowers?
A special illustrator's prize should be awarded to Laura Park for her images of the flying-wrecking-ball-like mass of animals and politicians ("Congresibirdraburtlebear") hell-bent on averting environmental destruction. Armed with a suitably megaphone-loud palette, Park (Abner and Ian Get Right-Side Up) likes to interrupt bucolic outdoor scenes with sudden blasts of droll chaos. She's a good match for Rex--among his greatest hits are School's First Day of School and Are You Scared, Darth Vader?--who proves with Unstoppable that his gift for crafting sense-making absurdity is undiminished. Let's hear it for Lauradrexpark! --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author