Ernest always helps out at home and always does what his mother tells him to do. “Ernest never: spilled, whined, dawdled, talked back, got his own way . . . or had a good time.” When a new family moves in up the hill, Ernest pays them a visit (after getting his mother’s permission, of course) and meets Vlapid. “You look like the kind of boy who always listens to his mother,” Vlapid’s mother tells him. Vlapid’s mother has a to-do list of her own—Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room. It turns out that Vlapid, too, always listens to his mother, and the two boys set to work, wreaking havoc in each room. Vlapid’s mother is thrilled with the results. Florence Parry Heide and Roxanne Heide Pierce’s deliciously subversive picture book story is paired with funny, pitch-perfect illustrations by Kyle M. Stone contrasting Ernest’s straight-laced, uptight existence at home with Vlapid’s Addams-esque family life. (Ages 5–9)