Aunt Lulu

Aunt Lulu's nephew tells a fun-to-read-aloud tale of his big, strong librarian aunt who once lived in Alaska, where she'd harness up her 14 huskies, yell, ``Mush Melvin, Louise, Phoebe, Willie, Norman, Hortense, Bruce, Susie, Charles, Teddie, Neddie, Eddie, Freddie and Sweetie Pie,'' and set off to deliver a sledful of books to the miners in the wilderness. Homesickness brings this zany individualist back to civilization (in this case, Parsippany, N.J.) where she continues to live along with her dogsled, dogs, cat, fish, bird, mouse and 15 pairs of pink sunglasses. The repetition of the sled dogs' names, along with the hand-drawn (rather than the recent computer-inspired illustrations of Pinkwater's past few titles), magic-marker-like illustrations make this worthy of many re-readings. Ages 5-8. (September)