cover image Uncle's New Suit: A Sort of True Story

Uncle's New Suit: A Sort of True Story

Lisa Passen. Henry Holt & Company, $14.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-1652-9

This wacky picture book--which stretches family loyalty to the limit--gives strong support to the adage ``Blood is thicker than water.'' Several members of the narrator's raucous extended family share one large house, so it's hard to keep any news a secret. When Nana learns that Uncle Carmen has procured a new job, everybody hears about it: ``He gotta new job! A suit job,'' the proud matriarch exclaims. But Carmen has no new suit for his first day at work. Still more relatives appear for a group shopping trip and, unbeknownst to Carmen, the whole clan chips in for the sharp set of clothes he has tried on. Passen's ( Fat, Fat Rose Marie ) sprightly text abounds with the boisterous energy that surrounds large families. This household contains a goodly number of idiosyncratic personalities who sport rhinestone glasses or fuzzy slippers. Paintings of amusingly bulbous-nosed, heavy-headed figures feature predominantly warm hues, occasionally splashed with lively red, yellow or green; unusual perspectives add to the fun. Ages 6-8. (Apr.)