One by one every member of the Wimbledon family is awakened during the night by a strange noise or smell in the house, and every time Walter, the father, goes to investigate, he returns to report, “It’s only Stanley.” Stanley is an ordinary looking beagle engaging in increasingly ludicrous behavior, from banging on the basement boiler with a hammer to working on the bathroom plumbing. A sudden “Kapow!” is startling for everyone. “The Wimbledons went flying, Including Max, the cat. Wendy looked around and said, 'Well, what on earth was that?!’ 'I’ll go and look,’ said Walter, 'And I’ll be back very soon.’ 'It’s only Stanley,’ Walter said. 'We’re going to the –’” Stanley, it turns out, is not only a mechanical genius, but he’s in love with a pink poodle on the moon. Jon Agee’s absurd and delightful picture book is full of visual clues and foreshadowing. Repeated readings guaranteed. (Ages 3–7)

Fans of Jon Klassen and Oliver Jeffers will love this mischievously funny read-aloud from award-winning author/illustrator Jon Agee

Mysterious noises keep waking up the Wimbledon family. "That's very odd," says Mr. Wimbledon each time, but when he returns from checking on the sounds, he's always reassuring: "It's only Stanley; he's fixing the oil tank." "It's only Stanley; he's clearing the bathtub drain."

But what Stanley the dog is actually doing while his oblivious family goes back to bed is deliciously absurd: he's turning the house into a rocket ship to zoom himself and his family to another planet for an alien encounter. This is a perfect rhyming read-aloud for fans of irreverent tales like Click Clack Moo and I Want My Hat Back.