Cloud Nine

There's no place like home, no matter how noisy. This is the lesson Armstrong learns after his exasperated father tells him to ""Go outside and build!"" And so he does: he builds a ladder that reaches the sky. Eight number-shaped clouds float by before Armstrong lassoes the ninth one and climbs aboard. Thrilled with his very own, quiet place, Armstrong sails through the air until his cloud hits a mountain peak and springs a leak, causing it to whoosh through the sky until Armstrong lands back home with his ever-cacophonous family. Although the transitions pose a few stumbling blocks, Silver's (No More Tigers in Africa) story pays playful tribute to a child's imagination. And Ormerod (Sunshine; Moonlight) offers a silver lining with her visual humor (Armstrong cuts quite a comical figure as he climbs his ladder wearing oven mitts on his hands and a swimming mask over his helmet). A quibble: the color in a number of the spreads is washed out. Ages 5-8. (Aug.)