The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip

Read this for the third time (it's 84 pages, illustrated) and this time I did it aloud to Luke. It's the story of a girl named Capable living in the town of Frip who's exhausted from her job of brushing off gappers from her goats on a daily basis. Gappers are baseball-sized, multi-eyed creatures that adhere themselves to goats and then shriek joyfully. The goats get put out. Capable's neighbors are buffoons and she comes up with a plan. It's a bizarre and occasionally funny tale which has the importance of being neighborly as a lesson learned. George Saunders is more well-known for his offbeat short story collections (I've read ‘em). This book is gorgeously illustrated by Lane Smith (of Stinky Cheese Man fame).

I re-read this again on December 3rd, 2012 to both my kids.