Uptight Lester is plagued by a visiting aunt who knits nonstop. Her sweaters are hideous, each one a new humiliation for Lester, who ends up facilitating a tragic end for all of them. “I have curiously bad luck with sweaters,” he says to Aunt Clara. “Luckily,” she replies, “I’m a curiously speedy knitter.” The day after this exchange he awakens to a mountain of “cruel colors, appalling polka dots, frightening stripes, startling tassels and things with six fingers.” It looks like Lester is doomed to days of sartorial embarrassment, until a band of clowns at a birthday party he’s attending saves the day—they LOVE Aunt Clara’s sweaters, and give her a job working for them. K. G. Campbell’s quirky tale is whimsical in every way, from the language play in the writing to the muted illustrations that, upon closer look, are as offbeat as the sweaters Lester endures. (Ages 4–8)