OOPS

Geisert adds another link to his inventive, wordless chain-reaction escapades that are awash with cleverness and ingenuity. A family of five pigs is having breakfast in their house that sits cantilevered from a hill. A common mishap of a glass of spilled milk starts things rolling—literally. The milk runs through the table crack, down a drain into a paint tray, which bumps a screwdriver that turns on a buffing wheel that breaks a clothesline and wraps around a table saw, which tips over onto a wagon and turns on. The wagon rolls, the saw cuts the cornerpost of the house, causing it to tip, breaking the kitchen stovepipe that bursts a water pipe that uproots a tree. The momentum and mayhem culminate in a large rock careening downhill and crashing into the roof of the house. Whew! In the final scene, the pig family is standing together, amid the remains of the house, still smiling—somehow. More sophisticated, dark and subtle than Lights Out (2005); fans will delight in the frenetic action and maze of details in the etched illustrations and find relief in the fact that everyone is okay. (Picture book. 5-8)