October 9, 2006

Long Story

“The Long Chalkboard and Other Stories,” by Jenny Allen

Those untouched back issues of The New Yorker. That new Woodward thingy. The briefs your boss keeps asking about.

The stack of reading material on your nightstand isn’t exactly conducive to sweet dreams.

Or, for that matter, to reading.

Fortunately, Jenny Allen, a.k.a. Mrs. Jules Feiffer, knows grown-ups need bedtime stories, too. The Long Chalkboard, which she created in collaboration with her legendary cartoonist husband, is the perfect antidote to your bedside-table book blues.

It’s a whimsical, intelligent trio of tales — sort of The Phantom Tollbooth meets Woody’s Upper West Side — about the adventures of grown-up (but often childish) city dwellers.

An enormous chalkboard installed in a playroom by a young mother becomes a tabula rasa for the apartment’s many inhabitants. A persnickety children’s book author wages war on her hapless competitor. And a woman gains unwanted fame for her unusually delicious chili.

The stories, graced by hubby’s distinctive illustrations, are wry enough to not be cloying and playful enough to send you to sleep with a smile on your face.

Bedtime-story reader not included.

Available online at amazon.com.