Getting punk'd by 'possum

Scared Silly
by Sara Desmet

An anteater, a pig and an opossum: not my favorite animals. Alistar, Melvin and Harvey: not my favorite names.

Still, to paraphrase a Tom Chapin song, they're so weird and ugly, they're cute. Harvey (the opossum) stumbles into the other two while out on his nightly constitutional. Al and Mel, day creatures both, are on their first nocturnal adventure and not being especially brave about it.

And that's Harvey's problem. Even after befriending them, he gets his jollies by spooking them. Only funny to you, rat-tail.

I was expecting the marsupial who cried wolf here, and was almost rooting for Harvey to become a predator's midnight snack. You know some sort of lesson is coming, but it's not that one. Instead, the tables are turned, and there's a jot of scientific realism when Harvey, well, plays possum.

Desmet's another college student making her first mark with Red Cygnet Press, and her detailed watercolors capture those dark, spooky woods in somber shades. She can render each whisker on a furry snout, or the shredded fabric on Harvey's sofa, and yet the whole thing has a delightful absurdity to it.

Rating: *\*\