Uptight Lester is plagued by a visiting aunt who knits nonstop. Her sweaters are hideous, each one a new humiliation for Lester, who ends up facilitating a tragic end for all of them. “I have curiously bad luck with sweaters,” he says to Aunt Clara. “Luckily,” she replies, “I’m a curiously speedy knitter.” The day after this exchange he awakens to a mountain of “cruel colors, appalling polka dots, frightening stripes, startling tassels and things with six fingers.” It looks like Lester is doomed to days of sartorial embarrassment, until a band of clowns at a birthday party he’s attending saves the day—they LOVE Aunt Clara’s sweaters, and give her a job working for them. K. G. Campbell’s quirky tale is whimsical in every way, from the language play in the writing to the muted illustrations that, upon closer look, are as offbeat as the sweaters Lester endures. (Ages 4–8)

Everything went well enough at first when Cousin Clara unexpectedly came to stay with Lester's family. ?Clara didn't make unsavory noises or rearrange Lester's Lost and Found collection. All she did was sit and knit.? However, things quickly take a turn when Clara presents Lester with a sweater she knitted for him. Not a normal sweater. A misshapen, yellow with purple pom-poms sweater. A perfectly dreadful sweater! Lester is mortified to be seen in it. Luckily, it is destroyed in a mysterious accident later that day. But then Clara surprises him with another sweater, equally ghastly. When it, too, meets an unfortunate end, Clara knits another one, and then another to replace that one after its tragic demise. Is there nothing Lester can do to stop Cousin Clara's never-ending supply of hideous sweaters?

Author and illustrator K. G. Campbell's unconventional picture book tale is brought to hilarious life by his drawings of uncommonly ugly sweaters. With its offbeat humor and terrific use of language, it would make a superb choice for a lively read-aloud. Though the fastidious Lester with his exceedingly good manners is a bit unusual, the dilemma he faces is a fairly common one, and this book could launch a classroom discussion about young children's own experiences with receiving unwanted gifts, and the trade-offs that are made within families between honesty and kindness. It would make an inventive resource for a lesson on hobbies or crafts, or for children's own craft projects as well.