(From “The Best Kid’s Stuff,” December 1996)
In a very welcome twist on those relentlessly beaming families so dear to picture book authors at holiday time, Matthew McElligott offers “The Truth About Cousin Ernie’s Head” (Simon & Schuster, $15). Here’s a crowd gathered for Thanksgiving whose squabbling over family history never lets up. McElligott’s narrator gets a taste of harmony and then decides he likes his combative family just the way it is.