Title: Squireel Seeks Chipmunk

Author: David Sedaris

Illustrated by: Ian Falconer

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company 2010

Genre: Humor

Pages: 159

Rating:   5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Amazon -- Customer Favorites

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary is a collection of animal-themed humorous short stories by memoirist and humorist David Sedaris.

If animals were more like us, if mice kept pets and toads could cuss, if dogs had wives and chipmunks dated, sheep sat still and meditated, then in the forest, field, and dairy you might find this bestiary, read by storks, by rats and kitties, skimmed by cows with milk-stained titties. "I found the book to be most droll," might quip the bear, the owl, the mole.  Others, though would be more coarse.  "Bull," could say the pig and horse.  As to the scribe, they'd quote the hen: "Trust me, he's no La Fontaine."

Delightful collection of stories.  Some funny, some sad, some thought provoking.  Make not mistake about it, these stories really aren't about animals. Unless you consider humans just to be another species of animals.  Then, yes, it is about animals of the upright two-legged kind.

My favorites:

• The Parenting Storks -- What happens when we try to answer the touch questions?  What kinds of answers do we get?  One stork thinks she has it all figures out.  Unfortunately for her and her child, her answers aren't real or logical.  Poor stork!
• The Crow and the Lamb -- The cruel things we do to each other.  Makes for a great story about a lost sheep and lamb and the selfish crow.
• The Judicious Brown Chicken -- Pride goeth before a fall.  Haven't I read that somewhere?  Another take on the phrase.

David Sedaris has certainly hit another home run.  Just amazing!