AUNT MATILDA’S ALMOST-BORING PARTY

In a first-person, rhyming narration, an unnamed little boy recounts being forced to attend a party by his Aunt Matilda of the “oh-so-perfect manners” and the “oh-so-perfect friends.” Bored and exhausted, the boy falls asleep in an armchair and begins to dream. In his dreams, the boring party morphs into a boisterous free-for-all, in which the guests all wind up throwing pies at each other. In dreamland, the boy has a change of heart about his Aunt and invites her to participate in his birthday baseball game. In muted colors and much detail, the illustrations depict both the real party and the dream party with the same combination of realism and whimsy. The illustrations also do the job of clearly indicating with a palette modulation that the boy is asleep and remains dreaming through the rest of the tale. A pleasing-enough romp but with an ending somehow unsatisfying, probably because readers know that the boy’s fond memories and new appreciation for Aunt Matilda will vanish—rather undeservedly, as the last scene depicts her lovingly covering him with a blanket—when he wakes up. (Picture book. 4-8)