BEWARE OF THE AUNTS!

The middle-child narrator has an ordinary enough family until it comes to aunts, of whom there are simply too many, each with some disconcerting trait: one kisses too much, another eats huge amounts; Aunt Zara makes not only her own odd garments but things for her reluctant nieces; there's even one aunt with all the appearance of being a witch. Thomson's wry, succinct text combines nicely with Clark's ebulliently expressive pictures for an amusing survey of idiosyncracies that children find inconvenient or embarrassing. Only the ingenuous greed of the conclusion seems a touch unimaginative: ""You can't have too many aunts at Christmas!"" Still, there's enough lighthearted merriment here (along with the social satire) to make this a worthwhile purchase.