ANOTHER DAY IN THE MILKY WAY

Carrying the idea of waking up on the wrong side of the bed to the next level, Milgrim has a young narrator wake up on entirely the wrong planet. A sense that he’s done this before keeps Monty from panicking, and so, having survived a breakfast of liver flakes dished up by his suddenly three-headed mother, Monty saunters off beneath a stack of math textbooks, trying to remember how he got back home the last time. A decidedly oddball journey ensues, as he makes his way through an alien landscape populated by bizarre rodeo riders and an entire herd of diverse animals in horse costumes. Eventually, Monty laboriously climbs up to ask the wise Starman on the Hill for help. That grizzled gent offers pizza and stargazing—a celestial combination that lands Monty back in his own, Earthly bed just in time to be awakened by his (one-headed) Mom. A wry, low-key alternative to Barbara Todd’s similarly surreal but more frenetic Roger Gets Carried Away (2005), illustrated by Rogé. (Picture book. 6-8)