RANDOLPH'S DREAM

When he's sent during WW II to stay with a staid great-aunt and great-uncle, Randolph--a rather withdrawn child--has dreams of flying out his window and over the countryside. One night, he flies all the way to North Africa, where he is able to rescue his father (he's lost in the desert, and Randolph leads him to an oasis)--and return with a real orange, which he still has next morning. The smoothly written story has a slow beginning and is overextended with details of interest mostly to adults, though it does generate a small thrill at its denouement; Parker's pen-and-watercolor illustrations are skillfully evocative, but their subjects are not lively enough to interest most children. A curiosity.