My Curious Uncle Dudley — Barry Yourgrau

Invicius Ponticius Supalicius. . .Magilili . . . Lililiculus?

Duncan Peckle's young life changes forever the day his mysterious relative -- Uncle Dudley of the great voyages -- arrives in Mt. Geranium for the summer. No sooner have Duncan's parents left him in his uncle's care than a curious package arrives from a certain Knichtbubel Institute. Quickly the attic guest room is aswarm with secrets of the awesome magical researches of Dr. Julius Feathergold -- and one shrunken head.

So unfolds a season of curiously phenomenal misdoings, of reckless dangers
and preposterous misadventures -- from summoning goblins to zooming
wildly on the night air like the famed bubble riders of old Nanking. Not to mention chaos with .a love elixir. . . .

Complemented by Tony Auth's wry drawings, Barry Yourgrau's moon-touched sorcerer's apprentice tale is at once hilarious and poignant, nostalgic and timeless -- a truly magical tour de force.