MR. POSEY'S NEW GLASSES

Routine and sameness are wearing on Mr. Posey, a bespectacled, balding older man.

Mr. Posey longs to see the world as his young neighbor Andy sees it, with effervescence and possibility! He decides replacing his glasses may help and invites Andy along for the adventure. They walk through their diverse neighborhood (Mr. Posey presents white, and Andy presents black) to scour the local thrift shop for the right pair. With each set of lenses that he tries, Mr. Posey is transported into a world quite different from his own. A star-shaped pair shows him the night sky; a round pair makes him feel the world is whirling around him. Some even defy the laws of physics! In the end, after Andy points out how dirty Mr. Posey’s original glasses are, he is able to see just fine with them after all. Mr. Posey’s humdrum slump is expertly communicated through the illustrations. His bathroom waste bin overflows, his flowers droop, and a gray wash hangs over everything. Some exceptionally keen descriptors leap out of the narrative, such as the thrift shop’s “rose-petal old-shoe smell.” Though the journey in and out of the different glasses is rather formulaic, and the relationship between Mr. Posey and Andy is regrettably underdeveloped, this is still a nice representation of intergenerational friendship.

Surreal, wacky, and peppered with just a hint of danger. (Picture book. 6-10)