School Library Journal Starred Review (Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

PreS-Gr 2 Young Joe is apprehensive about attending his friend Tom's evening birthday party. He lost the invitation, remembers the street name, but forgot the house number. His mother assures him they'll find Tom's home if they just walk along the street and look in windows. As he and his mother search, Joe peppers her with questions that reveal his anxiety: "What if I don't like the food?" and "What if there's someone at the party I don't know?" His mother patiently attempts to assuage his uneasiness. Joe's fears feed his imagination, causing him to see disquieting visions in the houses they pass, including possible aliens, a huge elephant, and slithering snakes. Once they find the right place and Joe joins the party, it's his mother who begins to have doubts about leaving him. The intriguing gouache and crayon illustrations are enjoyable to study as Browne subtly inserts strange images, including a rabbit on a roof and the shadow of a menacing bear. The common fear of dealing with a new situation is handled well, and Browne's treatment of the topic will have readers nodding with understanding.— Maryann H. Owen, Children's Literature Specialist, Mt. Pleasant, WI

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A nervous boy named Joe is on his way to a birthday party, but he has lost his invitation and doesn-t know the house number. Panels in blue wash show Joe-s mother reassuring him as they walk down the street, considering each house. -What if there-s someone at the party I don-t know?- Joe asks. -You-ll be fine,- she says. The magic is in the dreamlike scenes that appear in each successive house-s window-are they real, or Joe-s anxieties made manifest? The first reveals an elderly couple sitting, somnolent, in their front room; a closer look suggests they might be aliens. An enormous elephant looms in the next window. Further along, schoolboys reminiscent of Tweedledee and Tweedledum shove a companion into a teapot. -What if they play scary games?- Joe asks. A roomful of Brueghel characters heaves and churns. Yet the love between Joe and his mother always keeps his fears from overtaking him, and when Joe finds the party at last, it-s his mother who has a moment of anxiety. Beautifully and subtly executed, with Brown-s extraordinary illustrative powers at work throughout. Ages 5-8. (Aug.)

ALA Booklist (Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

A window filled with swimming sharks. A room swarming with snakes and people dressed like Hieronymus Bosch's peasants. A batlike shadow spanning the front of a darkened house. These are just some of the bizarre images that confront a small boy and his mother as they make their way to a birthday party about which the boy is anxious. The mother and son's quest to find the house makes physical the childhood fear of the unknown at goes on in other people's houses, and is it like what goes on in the child's own? Like some of the work of Maurice Sendak, former British Children's Laureate Browne is unafraid to present sinister images, and some young readers might be disturbed. The fact that the boy ends up having a great time at the party won't erase the unsettling images from the minds of readers, but it may also offer assurance that some dark paths do end in light. This could also work as a wonderful introduction for older children to both graphic novels and surrealist painters.

Horn Book (Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2015)

Joe lost the invitation--with the address--to his friend Tom's party. As Joe and his mom walk down Tom's street, each window they pass shows a silhouette of something seemingly ordinary inside. A page turn, however, brings into focus the surreal, sometimes nightmarish scenes that are actually taking place. With its sophisticated visual humor, this is Browne at his artistically weird and psychologically complex best.