ULTRA-VIOLET CATASTROPHE!
Or, The Unexpected Walk With Great-uncle Magnus Pringle
by Margaret Mahy & illustrated by Brian Froud
The alliance of the irresponsible old and the fancy free young (or vice versa, or whatever) is a currently common theme in children's books; this entry from New Zealand lacks the poignancy of some but is larky enough to carry the occasion. At first Sally, who calls herself "Horrible Stumper" the tree pirate, resents dressing up to visit fussy Aunt Anne Pringle in the country; once there though she hits it off with Aunt Anne's father who escapes with her on a walk, gets dirty with her in the mud, and confesses that he likes such phrases as "ultra-violet catastrophe" and "seismological singularity" for the sound, not the meaning. The book's format—framed color pictures facing each page of text—make the whole outing more contained than Mahy's text would indicate, but the meeting does turn out better than we expected too.