Buyer Beware! Baa Baa Smart Sheep by Mark and Rowan Sommerset

LITTLE BAA BAA WAS BORED.

THEN ALONG CAME QUIRKY TURKEY.

If idle hands (or hooves) are the devil's workshop, so are idle brains.

And when Baa Baa is bored, well....

Quirky Turkey appears, wishes Baa Baa a good day, and notices a pile of roundish things on the ground nearby.

"WHAT'S THAT?"

"SMART PILLS," SAYS BAA BAA.

"IT LOOKS LIKE POO," SAID QUIRKY TURKEY.

Huh! Quirky Turkey is no bird brain. Little Baa Baa can't hoodwink him.

Turkey asks if the pills can really make him smarter. Sure, Baa Baa says, adding that Turkey could become a real brainiac. But he has to swallow them, right? asks Turkey. Well, sure.

What's the price? queries Quirky Turkey cagily.

"FREE," SAYS BAA BAA.

"ONLY TODAY."

Then Baa Baa moves in to close the deal.

"AND ONLY TO TURKEYS!"

Hmmm! Can't beat that deal, Quirky Turkey muses. And he IS a turkey....

He gobbles the smart pills.

"IT IS POO!"

"SEE?" SAYS BAA BAA. "YOU'RE SMARTER ALREADY! "

There's one born every minute, and in Mark and Rowan Sommerset's timely trickster tale, Baa Baa Smart Sheep (Candlewick Press, 2016), con man Baa Baa knows a mark when he sees one and pulls the wool over Quirky Turkey's eyes. It's a pretty stinky trick to play on a gullible friend, one that, er, doesn't go down well, but after all, author Rowan Sommerset posts his caveat emptor right there on the cover:

WARNING!
MISCHIEF INSIDE

Youngsters, of course, will find this story of a flim-flamming, sheep scam the source of hearty belly laughs, illustrated as it is in modestly simple style, with sly dialog that builds toward the inevitable punch line. "Barnyard high jinks that won't be to everyone's taste," wryly warns Kirkus Reviews!

But just in case it is, watch for the companion book forthcoming in August, I Love Lemonade, (think about it!) in which would-be trickster Quirky Turkey attempts to turn the tables on Little Baa Baa.