Ten-year-old James complains about his parents’ awe at his baby brother’s poop and drool, and fantasizes about handing him to a postal worker. This rhyming picture book begins with a typical premise. Forde’s inventive wordsmithing and her instinct for the ridiculous will have kids in stitches.Ī triumph of imagination of a different sort occurs in THE BABY-CHANGING STATION, written by the musician and author Rhett Miller (best known as the lead singer of the band Old 97’s) and illustrated by the Caldecott medalist Dan Santat. He chronicles his total confusion about the customs and rituals of his earthling “host family.” Inadvertently, we gain an intimate view of their life together: the individual relationships, the conflicts (often involving their cat) and eventually the cohesion. Through diary entries and official reports to his home planet, Bumpfizzle cleverly upholds his ruse. (If you are reading this book aloud, I recommend beginning in your best alien voice and then letting it fade as the narrator’s reliability comes into question.) Meet Bumpfizzle the Best, the famous alien warrior from Planet Plonk, who was sent to Earth on a secret mission and assumed the form of a 10-year-old boy named Daniel. A new baby can entrap you in the role of middle child, but imagination can liberate you. BUMPFIZZLE THE BEST ON PLANET EARTH, a chapter book by the Irish author Patricia Forde, confirms that you don’t have to leave home in order to escape.
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