In an airy riff on the evergreen idea behind, for instance, Antoinette Portis’s Not a Box (2006), an aardvark, an armadillo and an anteater explore some of the exciting possibilities in a carton labeled “My Time Machine.” Rolling up with a stack of books in tow, Sam thinks at first that her buddies Grant and Antoine have been “bamboozled” into trading 20 Yummy Gummys and a bag of Buggy Bonbons for a cardboard box. Still, she pitches in to help them attach a basketful of old toys and other “hoozie-doozies.” As a time machine the box turns out to be a total flop, but Sam sticks with it after her friends are distracted by her traveling library, and comes up with something far better. Bloom depicts these three would-be time travelers au naturel in her freely brushed illustrations, but places them amidst a fetching clutter of junk—and of books, which provide the key to Sam’s reader-satisfying solo project. A splendid use for a box, indeed. (Picture book. 6-8)
