When Bennys mother asks him to put his dirty plate in the sink, he responds by asking What would you do if I said no? Her answer is predictable, but not enough for Benny, whose what if? line of questioning continues as he dreams up increasingly naughty behavior What if he threw his plate at the wall? What if he jumped on the couch in muddy rain boots? What if he tore pages out of library books? Playing on their shared sense of humor and imagination, and showing more than a little bit of indulgence, his mothers answers become equally outrageous. She sends Benny off to the zoo, sells him to the circus, and even happily shoots him off into outer space as punishment for his behavior. Digitally rendered illustrations with a loose, expressive line play out each imagined scenario, with differing color treatment making the distinction between the real and the fantastic clear.
