Oops!

In this cumulative, confounding comedy, a family races to catch a plane. As the parents and two children catch a taxi outside their Paris apartment, their aunt accidentally squirts a bar of soap out the window: "Oops!" A bicyclist swerves, the taxi crashes, and a traffic jam ensues, delaying the vacationers. Soon the whole city is in an uproar—bears escape the zoo, a skateboarding elephant disrupts a motorcade—all due to the soap. Reprising the oversize format and pared-down illustrations of 365 Penguins, Fromental and Jolivet picture the events in thick patches of saturated teal, blue-violet, fuchsia, and apple green; the travelers wear orange and stay visible amid the cluttered spreads. The busy sequence exudes high anxiety, yet the chaotic crowd scenes are nearly illegible. At the conclusion, a gatefold titled "the chain of catastrophes" provides thumbnails of every spread and explains why the events took place. Without this appendix, key details (like the pink "strawberry syrup" leaking from a barge) are not communicated. Readers are likely to side with daughter Amy, who admits near the end, "I don't understand at all." Ages 4–up. (May)