THE ADVENTURES OF PATTY AND THE BIG RED BUS

Two siblings travel from a high mountaintop to the sea’s deeps, from a circus to deep space, in this tongue-in-cheek tribute to little sisters, and to red VW minibuses, everywhere. Self-absorbed big sister Patty drives and narrates, bossily directing little sister to stay inside and out of danger at each stop, while she charges off to fight a fire, join the clowns, and generally have all the fun. But the illustrations, which feature pop-eyed, smiling cartoon figures and big-sister-style labels (“funniest clown!” next to “not so funny clown” for instance) tell a different tale, as little sister silently dances atop a spouting whale, diverts an oncoming meteor, and, in clown makeup, hefts a big cream pie. In the final scene, the sisters’ blocky conveyance turns out to be up on cinderblocks—but that makes its travels no less exciting, nor less hilarious the disconnect between the pictures and big sister’s slanted version of events. (Picture book. 6-8)