by Norm Feuti
2021 / 64 pages
Rating: Good

If you’re like me and can’t get enough of comic duos, here’s another odd couple pairing you’ll want to get to know. Ally is an alligator that appreciates his alone time, and Beak is a Yellow-Bellied Fee Boo bird, new to the swamp, and eager to make friends. She’s also blissfully unaware that predators and prey don’t usually spend quality time together, so she makes her introductions by way of landing on Ally’s snout.

Ally isn’t the most receptive, and is even quite annoyed by Beak’s “Fee Boo” song. But when a Long-Bill Party Pooper kicks Beak out of her new nest, it’s Ally to the rescue.

This is light-hearted fun, and not really meant as anything more. That said, it could be used by a parent to talk about what it means to be open to friendship with folks who don’t share exactly the same interests.

There are three more in the series so far. In the second book, Bedtime Jitters, Beak has trouble sleeping, because of all the weird sounds that happen in the swamp at night. Thankfully, Ally is there to explain that the Zump Zump Monster was just a bullfrog, and the Chatter Ghosts are just cicadas, and so on. They do get a little excitement when their night-time excursion leads them to some humans about to dump a load of trash in the swamp, but Beak and Ally make their own scary sounds and scare them away.

In book #4, Snow Birds, vacationing birds take advantage of Beak’s good nature, and it is up to Ally to set some ground rules, and clear up the misunderstanding.

The only caution for the series would a language concern in the third title, The Big Storm, where Beak says, “Oh my gosh.” It’s otherwise sweet story about Ally helping animals get ready for a storm, and in turn getting helped by them. But there’s three here without language concerns, so, easy enough to give this one a miss.

This would be a wonderful series for Grades 2 through 4.