A much-loved Danish illustrator, a 1972 Andersen medalist, takes up a problem that seems to be world-wide: kids who feel abandoned by their busy parents. Caroline, realistically pictured in the book's first half during a typical lonely day, wakes up next morning to transcribe a dream: the children band together to build a parent trap that's baited with films, videos, and free popcorn--once caught, an adult would ""never run away"" but, rather, be available for companionship and solace. In the end, Caroline's friends admire her story and do help build a playhouse-trap--with the happy implication that some adults may get the point. Olsen's illustrations--scribbly soft pencil lines and muted watercolors--are creatively varied in design and often wonderfully expressive; the unattributed translation is fine, though the dream sequence, in verse, is a bit clumsy. An appealing import that dramatizes the universality of childhood needs.