Eli and the Dimplemeyers

A real family and an imaginary one come to terms with each other in this good-natured tale. Early on, bald, harmonica-playing Donald Dimplemeyer emerges, with a cheerful wave, from beneath the bed of main character Eli Finkel. Subsequent pages show that Eli's room is crowded with Dimplemeyers: mother Doris, guitarist daughter Drusilla and a son nicknamed Trip for his unsuccessful tightrope-walking attempts. But Eli's parents, who maintain that the Dimplemeyers don't exist, send him to a shrink. At last Eli's grandmother comes up with a workable solution: the Dimplemeyers move into a treehouse in the Finkels' backyard. Kornblatt ( The Search for Sidney's Smile ) hints that the Dimplemeyers are fantasy characters, yet he leaves final say up to readers. Meanwhile, New Yorker cartoonist Ziegler ( Mr. Knocky ) adds innocuously goofy drawings of the Dimplemeyers, who appear just as substantial as Eli and his family, if somewhat off-the-wall. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)