UNCLE'S NEW SUIT

Drawing on real characters from her childhood, Passen tells a warmhearted story that is ``true, sort of.'' ``Back when there was only black-and-white television,'' she and her immediate family shared a house with Nana and Poppa, Uncle Angelo (a cop on the night-shift) and his rapidly growing brood, and Uncle Carmen, who comes home one day with terrific news: ``He gotta new job! Inna office! A suit job...No more he be a waiter!'' Despite Carmen's protestations (``I don't have enough money...''), the whole crew, with his fiancÇe and several more relatives, haul him down to Mr. Herbie's store, get him to try on a suit, pretend that he's won a free suit in a contest, and (while he's in the changing room) pool their resources (``Uh, I think I got a twenty here'') to pay for the suit. In the naive style she used in Fat, Fat Rose Marie (1991), Passen portrays these wonderfully ordinary people as cheerfully plain—an extended family of 21 Italian-Americans who can depend on each other. (Picture book. 4-8)