Home Alone

September 14, 2015
The hit 1990 John Hughes film, which will forever be identified with Macaulay Culkin’s cheek-slapping scream, gets the picture book treatment. When eight-year-old Kevin McCallister is accidentally left behind as his family embarks on a Christmas trip, the boy gleefully embraces solo run of the house; oddly, the book never explains where his family has actually gone, simply allowing Kevin—and readers unfamiliar with the film—to think that he’s made them disappear overnight.) Following the film’s plot points, Kevin attends Christmas Eve church services, sets elaborate booby traps to thwart would-be burglars, and makes a connection with scary “Old Man Marley” who lives next door. Fans of the movie will enjoy Smith’s comic renderings of Kevin’s antics, though lines like “Marv and Henry slipped on the toy cars and were knocked over by paint cans” don’t live up to the mayhem of the source material. Ages 4–8.