Ed & Fred Flea - Softcover

Amiable Ed and selfish Fred inhabit opposite ends of the same dog. Ed is well adjusted and content, but Fred is oblivious to all but his own grand plan to possess the entire animal. As signs of an itchy catastrophe mount, Ed urges his dog-mate to "flee," while Fred, sensing an opportunity, feigns illness in order to effect his goal. Children will delight in seeing Fred's coming demise, as well as his utter disbelief at what befalls him on the final page. This is a funny moral tale (or is that tail?) in the best sense--never didactic or preachy, yet dead-on in showing the folly of greed. The ebullient, rhyming text is playful with both words and characters, and Cole's illustrations complement the text with true comic flair. A cental section of the book, which describes clever remedies for humorous animal illnesses, seems too long, but it won't deter anyone from enjoying the quick-witted fable in the grand tradition of P. D. Eastman's Go, Dog, Go! (1966) and Mike McClintock's A Fly Went By (1958). Tim Arnold

Bad Fred Flea, who shares residence on a dog with his angelic brother, Ed, hopes to get the whole hound to himself. When Ed, who reads the dog's whining as a warning to move on, invites Fred to bail out with him, Fred feigns illness to stay behind and stake more territory. His response to Ed's accusation of fakingA"'No, it's true!' Bad Fred lied. 'And there never can be,/ a pill to cure a poor flu-y flea'"Ainitiates a long digression about other animal diseases that can be cured. Ed's triumph is short-lived, however, for in the end, out comes the flea powder. The Edwards and Cole team is missing the wordplay and whimsy of their The Worrywarts (reviewed above) here. Cole may entertain readers with gleeful caricatures of the fleas in their respective arm chairsAEd smiling with a cup of tea at his elbow, Fred glowering with arms crossed and a spring popping out of his chairAbut this glib tale of comeuppance is unlikely to make readers itch for rereadings. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)
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