In the fine tradition of John Burningham’s John Patrick Norman McHennessy, The Boy Who Was Always Late (1988), a New York lad overcomes—or so he claims—all sorts of unusual obstacles to get to school, from a flood in Times Square to a Hyundai-eating robot from Mars. With photorealistic precision, Austin depicts an exaggeratedly panicked young scholar from a variety of canted and slanted points of view as he runs, flies, sails, and flails his way down city streets, and is last seen, soaked and shoeless, making his excuses to an understandably skeptical-looking teacher. Reiss lays out those excuses in breathless, if sometimes forced, verse—“I woke up at eight / In a terrible state / Sure that I’d missed my carpool”—that creates an appropriately rollicking beat. Children tardy and timely alike will laugh at this droll recitation. (Picture book. 7-9)
