Another Day in the Milky Way

The other day, I woke up on the wrong planet," claims Monty, the boy narrator of this reverie. "It happens to me every once in a while." His mother has three heads, and she sends him off with a stack of identical math books, calling, "Have a nice day at school... Don't eat anyone." Accompanied by his doglike pet, which has antennae, pink stripes and a droopy conical nose, Monty sits under a blue tree and attempts "to remember how I got home the other times." Finally he gets assistance from a horse (which turns out to be a donkey in disguise). and asks for help from a stargazing sage who looks wise but mistakes the boy for the pizza delivery guy. At last Monty recalls that if he falls asleep, he'll awaken in his usual bedroom. Milgrim's (Young MacDonald ) digitally rendered characters are just a step up from stick figures, drawn in a black line and filled with matching blues and burgundies. His alternate planet, a rock-strewn desert with multiple moons shining in the night sky, is too Earthly to be weird and makes the dream conclusion all the more disappointing. Monty's deadpan narration is the funniest part of an unsurprising adventure. Ages 4-up. (Feb.)