The latest offering from Jordan Troutt and Sarah Preston (the author-illustrator team who collaborated on 2008’s The Naming Book of Rascally Rhymes) will likely please most young listeners, but it may drive some parents mad.

The story is simple and whimsical. Oscar is a cat. When he discovers his bowl of milk is empty, he decides the creamy white moon is the place to get more of what he loves. Following a few false starts, he enlists the aid of “birds and all those who fly” and arrives at his destination. After feeding on milk and cream cake, Oscar is so bloated he drifts off into space before returning home, satisfied and sleepy.

It’s good, simple fun, and Preston’s bright, stimulating illustrations, full of swirls and strong contrasts, will captivate children as the verses are read. But therein lies the problem: it’s not easy to write good rhyming couplets, and Troutt, while clearly talented, isn’t quite up to the task. In places, the anapestic lines fall with a sudden clunk: “His tummy growled as he licked at the spoon. / His belly, so full of gas, grew to a great big balloon.”

Kids aren’t likely to notice the awkwardness of the second line, or the occasional grammatical slip-up (at one point, Troutt uses “further” instead of the correct word, “farther,” which would have scanned just as well), but parents might.

Oscar is bright, jolly, and silly enough that youngsters will love it. But here’s a plea to publishers and authors: please consider the patient mums and dads who read and reread stories to their children ad infinitum, and make absolutely sure rhyming books do what they are supposed to do – sound good when read aloud.