What If …? by Anthony Browne (review)

“Joe was going to his first big party,” and since young Joe is not a party guy, he’s pretty nervous. As he and his mother walk along looking for the house (they misplaced the invitation with the house number), Joe catastrophizes to his mother (“What if I don’t like the food? … What if they play scary games?”), who patiently reassures her son. And, in fact, it’s Mom who’s anxious once Joe’s off at the party, but they’re both delighted when event’s end reveals a beaming Joe who can’t wait to have a party of his own. Since this is Anthony Browne, this fairly straightforward story becomes a fantastical proto-gothic tale in its gouache and crayon artwork. Joe and his mother, in subdued nocturnal blues, peer into the front rooms of houses on the street that are simultaneously comically unexpected and precisely what Joe fears: a bacchanal of porcine jerks engage in horseplay around a weirdly set table (as a pig hides underneath) as he worries about food, and a medieval roister ensues with life-sized snakes and ladders (referring to the British version of the game Chutes and Ladders) as Joe tremulously asks about games. The neat geometric framing of the houses, crafted with Browne’s usual delicate precision, both controls and emphasizes the surreal absurdity of the strange living rooms’ contents, cunningly keeping anxiety at arm’s length without completely letting it go. Even non-anxious kids have experienced the utter weirdness of other people’s houses, and audiences will be amused by the conceit and understanding of Joe’s trepidation.