THE SHRINKING OF TREEHORN

One day young Treehorn notices that he has begun to shrink, but his parents, wrapped up in their own mysterious adult concerns, remain oblivious to his plight. Likewise the officials of his school ate unable to deal with a problem so far removed from normal disciplinary infractions; ""We don't shrink in this class"" says his teacher, annoyed by the irregularity of it all. In the end Treehorn finds the solution to his problem in a cereal box. This is a comic scenario of transgenerational communication from a child's point of view, framed in laconic prose which can be either melodramatic or wildly funny depending on the reader's appreciation of understated humor. Edward Gorey's pseudo-Edwardian drawings provide an appropriately outre background, It's a slightly sick joke, but the patient recovers.