Just Another Ordinary Day

According to the Australian author/artist's intentionally bland text, Amanda's day is decidedly run-of-the-mill: her alarm clock awakens her, she gets a lift to school with a neighbor, attends science class and is picked up by her mother at day's end. But Clement's (Counting on Frank) large-scale, caricaturish art tells another story, revealing that a turbaned genie striking a large gong serves as the girl's alarm, her elderly neighbor is a Tyrannosaurus rex wearing pearls and a straw bonnet, the science teacher is a human-size insect and her mother's ""off-road vehicle"" is an elephant. Other images are less outre: in the school ""cafeteria,"" the bulging-eyed Amanda and her pals sit at an elegant banquet table as a butler serves them triple-decker burgers; later, a fire fighter arrives to extinguish the flames from her father's hot curry. Clement throws in the occasional play on words (for example, the new girl in class from ""a land far away"" is a green, three-eyed alien), but the humor rests mainly on the contrast between text and art. The one-note joke may not wear well through repeat readings, but the deadpan visual gags are likely to earn strong laughs at least the first time through. Ages 3-8. (May)