DJ Funkyfoot: Butler for Hire!

January 1, 2021
Grades 1-3 Angleberger spins another new series into his growing Flytrap Files universe with this tale of a Chihuahua with a hip-hop name but a butler's game. Yes, DJ Funkyfoot (so named by his parents in hopes that he would take the hint) really yearns to "butle" but finds himself taking the only gig available: caring for a pair of park trees' cute offspring, ShrubBaby. Unfortunately, once the precocious plantlet learns that the difference between a nanny and a butler is that only the former can say "no" to an order, any chance of a sedate plotline is buried beneath floods of noxious substances ranging from pickle relish to 20,000 gallons of slime. Readers will come to admire the dapper dog's (mostly) unflappable ability to carry on--or, at least, make a hasty exit. Fox's line drawings, seen only in unfinished form, festoon nearly every well-leaded page with googly eyed flora and fauna, including Inspector Flytrap and his multispecies entourage. Proof that you can get good help these days.

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February 1, 2021
DJ Funkyfoot--a butler, not a DJ, despite his parents' wishes--has a chaotic day babysitting. DJ Funkyfoot is not a hip-hop star, though it's "a common mistake." He is, however, currently unemployed and can't afford to be too picky about what jobs he takes. The anthropomorphic dog (identified as a Chihuahua in prior volumes of the related Inspector Flytrap series) accepts a job as a nanny to "ShrubBaby, the Adorable Baby Shrub," whose previous 43 nannies have all quit. The problem, as DJ Funkyfoot explains to ShrubBaby, is that it's a nanny's job to say no, but a butler's job to say yes. If a butler's charge requests, say, to drive a pickle-relish truck into the pond, the butler must agree. Saying yes to ShrubBaby leads DJ Funkyfoot into constant catastrophes. First he's covered in pickle relish, then in pickle relish and soda, then in pickle relish, soda, and cake frosting, and finally in pickle relish, soda, cake frosting, and slime. Everything they encounter is exciting, extreme, and ultimate. (DJ Funkyfoot and ShrubBaby appear on both Ultimate Disaster Masters Showdown: Extreme and Extreme Cake Bakers Showdown: Ultimate.) Fox's two-toned cartoon illustrations of huge-eyed plant and animal characters are supplemented by a few pages of nearly wordless comics panels in this first collaboration between author and illustrator. Repetition and cumulative buildups add to the comedy while giving transitioning readers helpful scaffolding. Silly, messy, fast-paced fun. (Adventure. 6-9)

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