George Shrinks (by William Joyce)

Out of whimsy, William Joyce silently spins a tale with this golden rule as a moral: Take the most confusing, improbable, and even potentially menacing situations presented to you by life, and run with them. Show some panache and watch how fear melts into the air, or at least gets a good counterpunch. George has a catching zest that gets him into both fun and trouble, and, as such folk often have, a guardian angel is looking over his shoulder.

Almost the entire text is the note left by George's parents, so it is his response to their commands -- demonstrated in the artwork -- that motors this book forth. Drawn from the perspective of George's reduced circumstances, the illustrations allow readers to be mouse-size for a minute, to see new details in a familiar world gone suddenly strange.