Slam! A Tale of Consequences

Reading comics and wearing headphones, a boy doesn’t hear a grownup request that he not slam the door on his way out. This mild transgression triggers a series of events that start out as unfortunate (a startled pedestrian spews groceries all over a jogger), escalate to improbable (a truck full of sea creatures bursts open in the street), and end up downright fantastic (a dragon sleeping in the sewers takes flight, then crashes lands in town). Aliens in jetpacks and a van of circus performers also figure in. Nearly wordless, except for liberal use of onomatopoeia, the story is a feast of pratfalls, pileups, unexpected trajectories, and collisions with soft foods. Stower (The Wheels on the Bus) has a vigorous imagination, but he isn’t always the most skilled choreographer of incident, and readers may feel a little cross-eyed as they scan the page looking for jokes. The best way to enjoy the meticulously inked, carnival-colored drawings may be to follow just a few narrative threads to their satisfyingly silly resolution and focus on others in subsequent reads. Ages 3–7. Agent: Arena Illustration. (Mar.)