ANOTHER PERFECT DAY

Honey-gold sunlight pours across the pages of this energetic wake-up book, which borrows its metropolitan graphics and beefcake hero from 1930s-40s comic books. According to the nonchalant narration, a fellow named Jack "got up and looked out… got dressed… and went out." True enough, but the pictures tell a livelier story. Jack awakens in a circus tent and flexes his action-figure pectorals: "Aaaaahh! Another perfect day!" He blasts off from a cannon and lands in a conservative blue suit, à la Clark Kent (minus the phone booth). On his way to work as an ice-cream flavor tester, he destroys a monster robot and literally "catches" a train as it careens off a bridge. Jack revels in his life, but as he strides across rooftops later on, "things started to go a little funny": he suddenly finds himself wearing an extravagant pink tutu and baby bonnet, the bane of every macho man. "What happened to my perfect day?" he asks in horror. "You didn't wake up yet!" says a boy, dressed in the same style of pajamas Jack himself wore earlier. MacDonald, a magazine illustrator, may rely on the familiar "it was all a dream" outcome (Jack is the child, not the masculine ideal) but shines in his salute to vintage comics and retro printing. He uses a breakfast-time palette of mustard yellow, syrup brown, ketchup red and warm teal blue on antique-white paper, and his sunburst patterns, roiling clouds and voice bubbles convey Jack's super-duper energy. A clean design underscores MacDonald's spot-on pacing, and the ebullient morning images have the intensity of a ringing alarm clock. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)