This is one of the most unique, enjoyable children’s books I've read in a while, for a few reasons. First, it’s very different, which makes it stand out. The book is huge; over a foot long, in fact. As a result, the illustrations are also large, and often take up the entire page. They can be described as chaotic and busy, with many things going on at once. For example, one page of the book illustrates 3 car accidents, a truck of pigs escaping, a fire truck accidentally spraying a bus, a fire at the annual meeting of the butcher’s association, and a group of bears relaxing under a tree. This fits well with the mood of the story, which can best be described as hectic or crazy. The greatest part of the story, however, was the plot. It describes a series of chain reaction events that hinder a family from getting to an airport, starting with a bar of soap flying out the window of their penthouse apartment and ending with an alien invasion. Some of the following events, triggered by the bar of soap, include a convict escaping, a high flying limo ride, and a renegade ferris wheel nearly trampling a movie star. This is the far fetched, action packed, face paced energy that makes this book so enjoyable, especially for younger children. Another thing that makes this book unique is that you don’t know about the chain reactions until the end of the book, when the aliens discover that the bar of soap started everything. The very last page is a pop out with detailed illustrations of each page of the book, and a numbered list of the chain reaction events. Each number corresponds to a spot in one of the illustrations. You can then go back and find a chain reaction on each page. The main idea of this book is an illustration of cause and effect, and the notion that the seemingly simplest things can sometimes cause the biggest reactions. ( )

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