Conflict Resolution! The Infamous Ratsos: Ratty Tattletale by Kara LaReau

The Bully Boys are at it again. No sooner has little Tiny declared that he loves Mondays than Kurt Musky and Sid Chatterer snatch him up to toss up and down the school hallway.

"Cut it out, guys!" yells Tiny.

"Aw, he's so cute when he's angry," says Sid.

"Stop being so uptight, Crawley," says Kurt.

Millicent is moved to call a teacher, but Tiny stops her, saying that will only make it worse. Ralphie's warnings to the rowdies don't help, until at last Mrs. Beaver, the third-grade teacher steps out of her door and dispatches the two bullies to the principal's office. But now Ralphie knows he'd better watch his back.

And he's right. At lunch Sid and Kurt flip his lunch, and Ralphie has to clean up the mess while the bullies snicker. Still Ralphie is mum about the bullying around his big brother Louie, hoping to handle the problem himself. But at recess Sid and Kurt gang up on Tiny in Bombardment, and when Ralphie nails them with two balls, one after the other, he and the two bullies are all O-U-T of the game! Now, Ralphie knows he's on the two troublemaker's hit list. And when school's out, he finds his backpack in the trash can with a note:

PREPARE TO GET TRASHED!

Still, Ralphie is determined to keep the harassment to himself. Walking home with his brother Louie, he suggests they take a new way home, one that takes them by Mrs. Porcupini's, who offers them some of her hot cookies and cold milk. Just as the famished Ralphie is about to take a bite, the two bullies appear.

"Well, well, well," said Kurt, cracking his knuckles. "If it isn't our old pal, Ratty Tattletale!"

Now Louie gets what's going on and tells his little brother he should report the bullies to the principal. Ralphie refuses, on the grounds that tattling is not cool.

But when Ralphie tries to enter the arms race with Kurt and and Sid's pea shooters, things take a turn for the worst, resulting in the smashing of Mrs. Porcupini's window, and Ralphie agrees that it's time to 'fess up to their dad, Big Lou, about what's been going on, in Kara LaReau's latest in her The Infamous Ratsos series, The Infamous Ratsos: Ratty Tattletale (Candlewick Press, 2021). Choosing when to fight your own battles and when to ask for help is not easy, but in this Geisel Honor-winning series, all ends with a peaceful solution in what Ralphie calls "A smashing success." Along with Matt Myers' funny illustrations, author Kara LaReau's beginning chapter books offer comic considerations of those real-life early school days problems for developing readers.

Here's Mud in Yer Eye! Rot, the Bravest in the World by Ben Clanton

Spuds love mud.

For the Potato Pals, mud is their natural happytat, RIGHT?

It's their favorite playground! They even eat it!

"MARVELOUS MUCK!

MUD IN OUR TOESIES! MUD IN OUR NOSES!

MUD IS GREAT... WHEREVER IT GOSES!"

So when mutant little brother Rot discovers a pristine mud pit, the mud puddle to end all mud puddles, he's just about to claim it for his own with an epic cannonball when his bossy big brother Snot comes along. Snot delights in scaring his little brother, so he tells Rot about the evil monster, The SQUIRM, who may reside in this very mud pit.

"IT'S SLIPPERY! IT'S SLIMY!

GRIMY AND GROSS--AND ALWAYS HUNGRY!"

But I'm sure this mud is probably... possibly...SQUIRM free!" says SNOT.

Don't be a scaredy spud! JUMP IN! (HE HE!")

Now Rot is scared, but he screws his courage to the sticking point and takes on the mantle of a superhero with Viking helmet and sword (actually a cooking pot and broom)

"SIR SUPER ROT, THE PIGtato! "I'm kind of a PIG DEAL!"

Rot studies his image in the mirror.

"ONE SMASHING SPUD. I'M ROOTING FOR YOU!"

Rot spots something moving beneath the turgid surface of the mud. "IT'S ALIVE!"

Is Rot a timid tuber?

But wait! It's a worm. A friendly worm. Whew!

Rot suddenly sees himself as a potent potato, turning this knowledge into a rout for the pest Snot. Can he perpetuate his ownership of the Perfect Mud Puddle? But there's still more of the Spud Bros. mighty mud fight in store in Ben Clanton's second book about the Tater Two, Rot, the Bravest in the World! (Atheneum/Simon and Schuster, 2020). Author-illustrator Clinton's quirky illustrations, done in turbid tones and his punny dialogue make this spuds in the mud tale pure giggle bait for preschool and primary readers. Kirkus Reviews' starred review calls this one "Spudtacular!" The talented Ben Clanton is also the author-illustrator of Rot, the Cutest in the World! Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea: A Narwhal and Jelly Book 1 (and sequels) and Rex Wrecks It! (See more Ben Clanton book reviews here).

Sweet Revenge: I'll Fix Anthony! by Judith Viorst

Mother says deep down in his heart, Anthony loves me.

Anthony says deep down in his heart he thinks I STINK!

When I'm SIX, I will fix Anthony!

Little brother Alexander can't wait till he can get even with Anthony. He dreams of giving Anthony a taste of how it feels to be a little brother. He's going to be taller than Anthony because he eats vegetables and drinks milk and Anthony eats junk like jelly beans and root beer. He'll dive right off the diving board, but Anthony will chicken out! Alexander will know how to float, and Anthony will just sink to the bottom of the pool. Alexander will know how to sharpen pencils, and Anthony will have to beg him to sharpen his! Alexander will be reading The New York Times while Anthony is still reading baby ABC books.

Anthony will have a virus, and my grandfather will take me to the movies. I won't even have to save him some popcorn unless I want to.

Revenge will be sweet when Alexander is six and can jump higher, run faster, and beat Anthony at Tic-Tac-Toe every time! And Anthony will never chase him out of the playroom again...

I won't have to run when I'm six!

The thoughts of the payback are sweet, in Judith Viorst's classic story, I'll Fix Anthony (Aladdin Picture Books) (Aladdin/Atheneum Books) in her classic series of books about her sons' sibling rivalry. Alexander is, of course, the Alexander in her best-sellers, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday

Who's DA MAN? The Crossover: The Graphic Novel by Kwame Alexander

JB AND I
are almost thirteen.

TWINS, two BASKETBALL
GOALS, at opposite ends
of the COURT.

I'm an inch taller with
DREADS to my NECK.

He gets his head SHAVED
once a MONTH.

I want to go to DUKE.
He flaunts
CAROLINA BLUE.

If we didn't LOVE each other
We'd HATE each other.

Basketball and competition run in the Bell Family. Famous locally as an international basketball star, his dad, know as "Da Man," Chuck Bell boasts that he "balled with Magic Johnson." The dreadlocked Josh goes for the flying slam dunk, and Jordan is the cool crossover shooter who makes all the threes. Together Josh and Jordan take their team to the playoffs for the championship game, but their unconcealed rivalry leads to a bet in which Josh forfeits his dreads and like Samson, fears he's lost his mojo.

And as the rivalry proceeds, Josh and Jordan find that they like the same girl, Alexis in the pink sneakers, but she chooses the fast-talking Jordan. Angry, Josh smolders until in the playoff his jealousy reaches the tipping point.

The crowd is screaming,
PASS THE BALL!

I see Jordan.
You want it that BAD?
HERE YA GO!

I pass it so hard it levels him, the BLOOD
from his NOSE still
SHOOTING long after the
shot-clock buzzer goes off.

Josh is suspended from the team, and still angry, he bets his dad, Da Man, that he can beat him in a quick one-on-one. Dad gets competitive, goes for a high-flying dunk, and collapses with a heart attack, foreshadowed by symptoms he's been keeping from the family.

The ball is passed to Josh and Jordan in a way they both didn't quite see coming.

Now who's going to have to be DA MAN?

In his new adaption of his 2015 Newbery Award winner, The Crossover (Graphic Novel) (The Crossover Series) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019), Alexander's 2017 Newbery Award winner is a natural for a graphic novel. Author Alexander brilliantly makes the crossover and proves that he can rebound, too, in this powerful reexamination of what it means to have GAME. Alexander's writing in this graphic revisioning of his free-verse best-selling novel is equally powerful in its examination of the bravado up-and-down sides of the winning-is-all mystique, as he reworks his poetry into smart dialogue which heightens the conflict between the twins' competition as mirrored by their on-the-court conflict. The Emmy-winning artist Dawud Anyabwile's dramatic and insightful graphic art gives the story a flow which heightens the conflict inherent in this sports metaphor, making this almost mythic tale of rival fathers and sons accessible to a whole new audience for his earlier The Crossover (The Crossover Series) (see review here)

As I called it the first time--another SLAM DUNK for Kwame Christopher.

Other riveting middle-reader novels by Kwame Alexander include his novel about the twins' father's eighth-grade school days, Rebound (The Crossover Series) and the soccer novel Booked (The Crossover Series).

Getting to "YES:" What Are You Doing, Benny? by Cary Fagan

"Hey, Benny! What are you doing? Building a fort?

I'm really good at building forts. So can I help, Benny?"

"No," said Benny.

Little Brother can't catch a break. Benny, happily painting in his tree fort, turns him down flat.

Little Bro persists, pointing out that he's perfectly prepared to make forts, or potions, or paper airplanes to fly from on high, but Benny ignores all offers. Benny mounts his bike and, declining to watch how fast his brother can pedal, rides off solo.

Not to be left behind, Little Brother offers to join Benny is drawing cats, lying on the grass and looking up at the sky, and sharing one of Benny's fabulous lunch creations.

"You make the best sandwiches in the world!"

Benny declines to make two sandwiches and moves on to strumming his guitar. Little Brother starts to make up lyrics to go with the tune.

"When Benny makes a joke, it's really funny...

And I would give him all my money...."

Benny gets good and grumpy.

"NO."

Then Little Brother decides to make his own fun. He goes to his room and closes the door. He sets up his marionette stage and pulls out his cast of hand puppets. Time flies as he forgets all about Benny--until, surprisingly, his big brother appears at his door with his basketball.

"Want to watch me shoot hoops?" Benny offers.

"No, thanks!"

It's the old Tom Sawyer trick and it works, as Benny soon joins his little brother in his puppet performance with gusto--and with a special sandwich, to boot, in Cary Fagan's clever tale of turnabout is fair play, What Are You Doing, Benny? (Tundra Books, 2019). This just-published collaboration, pointedly and piquantly illustrated in panels and full-page spreads by artist Kady MacDonald Denton, provides a happy and humorous ending to an oh-so-common sibling situation.

This Book Brought to You by the Letter Y! No Yeti Yet! by Mary Ann Fraser

"IT'S A PERFECT DAY FOR A YETI HUNT!

Forget going on a bear hunt! Big brother is looking for really big game. Little brother is not so sure. He asks the salient question:

"WHY WOULD WE WANT TO FIND A YETI?"

Big Brother says he wants to take a photo, and suited up for snow, with his camera in his pocket, he forges on ahead through the drifts, little brother trailing in his footsteps.

"HOW WILL WE KNOW WHEN WE SEE ONE?

Big brother has done his research, and he says yetis are big and very strong, shaggy and white, like the pine trees in the woods, and  smells like wet wool. They have huge feet and run fast through snow. Big brother leads them through the snowy woods, but little brother is still not fully on board with the quest.  He looks around a bit fearfully. Every snowy tree looks like a yeti to him.

"DO YOU SEE A YETI?"

"NO YETI YET."

The brothers trudge up a hill and have a glorious slide down the other side. Little brother inquires where yetis live and gets a reply that doesn't reassure him at all.

"IN A DEEP, DARK CAVE."

And after many laconic answers of "Yup," "Nope," and "No Yeti yet," they find a cave. Big brother leads the way inside, following some humongous tracks.

YOWL!

"YIKES"

It's a yeti sighting for sure, right behind them. Big brother's camera flashes and drops to the floor of the cave and the brothers run for home without a backward look.

Safe behind their locked door, the two boys see a surprisingly friendly face at their window--their yeti, smiling and holding up their dropped camera.

Do yetis like hot cocoa? Yup, this one does, and it's an occasion for a yeti selfie, in Mary Ann Fraser's No Yeti Yet (Peter Pauper Press, 2015).

Among the plethora of yeti tales this winter, this one stands out for its sly use of suspense and spare dialog between the two brothers as they stalk the wily yeti through the wintry scene. Fraser's illustrations provide the comic counterpoint to the deadpan serious hunters, with her jolly yeti, planted, semi-concealed in every page, to the delight of story circle kids. Readers will be chiming in on the refrain, "No Yeti Yet!" while spotting the not-a-bit-scary yeti who wryly stalks his stalkers, even building his own not-so-abominable snowman in the background. "Light, wintry fun for the cryptozoologically inclined," says Publishers Weekly.

All For One! Brothers by David McPhail

MOST OF THE TIME THEY GOT ALONG.

SOME OF THE TIME THEY SQUABBLED.

It's inevitable that siblings are going to disagree. Some days big brothers won't share, even if little brothers ask (nicely). No fair!

Sometimes they decide to take turns.

And then they can't agree on whose turn it is.

Sometimes one says it's the other's fault. Sometimes one nicely assumes part of the blame.

"IT WAS MY FAULT, TOO!"

After all, you never know when you might skin your knee and need a ride home for first aid.

When they happen to like to do the same thing, brothers sometimes come up with an idea how to have it their own way.

THEY BOTH LIKE CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM, BUT ONE LIKES IT IN A CONE,

WHILE THE OTHER INSISTS ON A CUP AND A SPOON.

In his charming board book edition of Brothers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), there are good things and bad things about having a brother around, and artist David McPhail's tender and empathetic illustrations show both sides of the trials and triumphs of sharing everything--from one bike to part of the blame for a broken lamp to one bed when a scary nighttime thunderstorm blows in. It's nice that McPhail finally got around to creating a companion book to his still popular Sisters.  And parents of a pair of each, brothers and sisters, had better have a copy of each, just to be fair.

Dynamic Duo in Danger! The Twin Powers by Robert Lipsyte

Hercules' smile encouraged me.

"So is it going to happen? Are we going to save the Earths?" said Eddie.

"Doesn't look too good right now, does it?" said Hercules.

"I don't get it. If the Primary People have all these powers, why don't they save the Earths?"

Hercules sighed. "When the Primary people began their scientific experiments, the Supreme Council made a law that could not be broken. We would never intervene in the affairs of a planet we were studying."

"You would just stand there and let terrible things happen?"

"We know it sounds cruel, but we had to stay scientists, not gods."

It's not easy being a halfling--as Harry Potter and Percy Jackson can attest, and Tom Canty has two Earths to save, one the Earth in the present, and the other the 1958 Earth where his twin Eddie is currently enjoying the role of basketball star and all-around great guy. Some hard-nosed government agents are on Tom's tail, and the aliens are out to get him and Eddie, too, even if they are half alien themselves. Tom and Eddie's father and grandpa are aliens, but he doesn't know where they are, and it's not looking good for Eddie over on 1958 Earth with the Cold War and those hydrogen bomb tests unless the half-alien twins can come into their powers pronto. And Eddie is just getting the message that he's got a steep learning curve ahead of him.

There is a lot going on in the second book in veteran author Robert Lipsyte's Twinning Project series, The Twin Powers (Twinning Project) (Clarion Books, 2014), a lot of mind-to-mind communication between Eddie and Tom as they learn how to stay in touch, a lot of time travel in various extraterrestrial vehicles, and a touch of thought-generated mayhem as they come into conflict with both the alien Primary People's high council and the ever present X-Men types also trying to capture them at every turn. But they have their developing powers, their friends Ronnie, Alessa, and Britzky, earthlings from each planet, their dad and grandpa making cameo performances, and of course, the aliens' favorite sage, Mark Twain (get it?) to guide them.

It's a hard job, but someone's got to do it, and it may require several more sequels!

"Will we ever get back home?" said Alessa.

"Hard to say," said Grandpa. "Might depend on what happens."
I could sense dark clouds in the minds of Britzky and Alessa. They were feeling sad about their families, wondering when they would see them again.

Grandpa stood up. "We better get going. Can't let the 1958 space agency find a 2012 rocket ship."

Ronnie smiled. "If you're so smart," she said, "what are we going to do now?"

"Lots to do on this planet," said Britzky. "Check the timeline. We could be Freedom Riders."

"Count me in," said Ronnie.

Robert Lipsyte, who won the Margaret Edwards' Award for lifetime achievement in young people's literature, is one of the pioneers of the modern "junior novel," and in this latest installment whizzes his characters through the process of coalescing into a force for good. In the midst of all the trappings of a rip-roaring, time-traveling, and quite funny science fiction romp is the serious theme of how human beings can use their powers toward the good of their planet, whichever one it may be.

But then we've got Mark Twain to guide us. As he said, Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.

"Chock-full of action and suspense, this series will get readers thinking about important social and environmental issues," says School Library Journal.

Rites of Passage: Sons of the 613 by Michael Rubens

"Today I am a man.

Right there I knew something was wrong--seriously wrong--with Eric Weinberg. Everyone in the audience knew it.

It wasn't just the anxious, weebly quaver of his voice, the nasal soprano of which didn't do much to support Eric's assertion of manhood. I could see the greasy sheen of sweat on his beaky nose and the trembling of his birdlike hands. Eric... was starting to sway gently behind the podium.

I glanced at Josh. His muscly jaw was clenched, lips pressed together. He was trying not to laugh. This was funny to him.

I couldn't even look at Eric. He was giving off waves of intensely contagious Panic, and my Panic immune system is extremely weak.

My nine-year-old sister Lisa was staring at the stage with undisguised eyes-wide, mouth-open horror.

Baruch ata... adonai" Rabbi Abramovitz prompted again

"Blaarrrgh!" Eric responded, the dull, soupy splat of Eric's breakfast hitting the carpeted steps. The bar mitzvah boy hit the deck, out cold.

“Guess what, Isaac -–in two weeks, that’s going to be you up there!” said Josh, with a huge grin on his face.

It’s not just empathy for another bar mitzvah boy, one of only four Jewish kids in Isaac’s Edina, Minnesota, eighth-grade class, even though Eric’s epic hurling, which nearly besmirches the Torah, turns his debut as Jewish man into a viral YouTube video and Eric into a total pariah. It's that he knows Josh's taunting words are true, yea, prophetic. Isaac’s own bar mitzvah is near, and he has conveniently avoided telling his parents that his hired tutor Yoel has not shown up for any of the scheduled sessions to teach him the haphtorah passages he must recite all too soon. As far as preparation goes, Isaac has got nothing.

The handwriting (along with Eric’s barf) is now on the wall for Isaac, but to make things worse, his parents announce that they have decided to head off to Rome for a medical conference and vacation, leaving Isaac and Lisa under the supervision of Josh, their brawling, chip-on-shoulder, college dropout, one-time professional wrestling oldest son for two weeks.

“Josh will take care of us? Why-eee?”

“Yes!” (It was her power YES.) “I want my trip to I-ta-ly.” said Mom.

“My bar mitzvah is in two weeks. What if I’m not ready?”

“Look,” said my mom. “If you need more practice, Josh will help you. He loves that stuff.”

Oh, God.

“Right, Josh?” Mom said. “You’re big on the Jew stuff. You can help Isaac, right?”

Josh grins that big predatory grin of his.

Isaac is a good student, an ace at chess and Dungeons & Dragons with his peeps, Steve, Danny, and Paul, but not a jock and the first to admit to Josh that he is nowhere near being a man. But Josh, whose forearm tattoo proclaims his allegiance to the 613 rules of the Tanakh, has plans to fix that–a fortnight of Mega-Jewish boot camp to make a man out of his little brother.

Along with endless skull sessions on haphtorah passages punctuated by dope-slaps and punitive pushups, Josh puts Isaac on a course of 5 a.m. runs, jumping off cliffs into freezing rivers, self-defense and sharpshooting lessons, and midnight sorties to rock clubs, strip joints, pool halls, a bit of breaking and entering, and, of course, skipping school. Isaac soon sports one, then two shiners, gets his medium Jewfro cut short and spiked, loses his perfect attendance award, wrecks redneck punk Patrick’s motorcycle, and tops it off with a school-suspending fist fight with tormenting school bullies. Along the way Isaac gives up his room to Patrick and girlfriend Terri, is forced to sleep outside in a tent, and falls hopelessly in love with the kind and lovely Leslie, who is herself unfortunately and unrequitedly in love with Josh.

And then Josh violates the only stipulation in his care-taking contract with Isaac’s parents-–holding an all-out beer barrel bash that trashes the house and grounds and ends with Josh being arrested for brawling in the front yard, all on the night when little sister Lisa comes down with yet-another case of strep, and Isaac takes over for the clueless Josh, administering an instant strep test from his dad’s medicine bag and bringing her fever down--and all in time for Isaac’s parents to surprise them by coming home a day early.

It’s not the sort of rite-of-passage, coming-of-age event that any parents would knowingly opt for, but in Michael Rubens’ serio-comic story, Sons of the 613 (Clarion Books, 2012), Isaac does find his way toward manhood, gaining confidence as Josh intended and getting a better insight into what it means really to be a man.

“Sound like quite a time,” said Dad.

“Worst two weeks of my life,” I say. “And the best.”

I wish I could give my bar mitzvah speech again, Josh thinks later.

I’d say that I think there are different ways to be a man, that sometimes it means being brave and strong and aggressive, and sometimes it means thinking and caring and being responsible and seeing consequences. And everything in between all that.

Ruben’s narrative is drop-dead LOL comedic writing, but it is far more than just that. Manhood is more than just knowing how to handle a schoolyard fight or take down a bully. It’s about seeing into the person behind the responsible or brave or even foolhardy wacky front, to see what makes people, even his brave but self-destructive Jew-warrior older brother, the way they are. Isaac finally begins to see the way to manhood in his focused, devoted physician father, and in his own way, in his benighted brother. It’s a offbeat but real-world coming of age story that ultimately hits home.

Maturing fans of The Wimpy Kid books will laugh at the deft way Rubens’ humor nails middle school cool, while beginning to appreciate the gentle, understanding way he skewers not-so-observant Jewish mothers (Serving pork chops, Mom says, “Jesus, we’re terrible Jews.”), insecure, Mohawked redneck rowdies, and good-hearted exotic dancers while gently revealing their virtues as well. This is a highly-recommended read (Kirkus gives it a starred a review) for maturing middle readers, and for anyone who is making or has survived the transition from childhood to whatever maturity any of us can manage.

Tide and Seek in the Deep: Gilbert the Hero by Jane Clark

"THIS IS MY LITTLE BROTHER FINN," GILBERT THE GREAT WHITE SHARK PROUDLY TOLD HIS FRIEND RITA REMORA.

"MOM SAYS HE CAN COME TO THE PARK WITH US. WE CAN TEACH HIM ALL OUR GAMES."

"BUT HE'S TOO SMALL..." SAID RITA. "HE'LL RUIN EVERYTHING!"

And Finn is too small and too young for Gilbert's and Rita's usual fun. He's too light to hold down his end of the see-saw. He can't catch a ball, much less the huge sea urchin shell Gilbert tosses at him. Rita grumbles her I told you so, and hints that she might try to find someone else to play with if Gilbert is going to be stuck baby-sitting all day. Finally, Gilbert parks little Finn in the seaweed swing, securing him so that he can't follow them, and giving him a great big push to set him going happily.

Gilbert and Rita take turns "skating" on an obliging sting ray who zooms by, and for the moment everyone is happy.

Just then Gilbert spots something that can turn even a young great white pale--an enormous KILLER WHALE! Rita scoots for safety, but Gilbert knows that his little brother, fastened in the seaweed swing, is the tasty little appetizer that the big killer whale now has on his menu. Can Gilbert the Great save Finn?

Jane Clark's and Charles Fuge's third entry into the Gilbert series, Gilbert the Hero (Sterling, 2011), makes good use of Fuge's noted artistic talents in his appealing deep-sea illustrations of Gilbert's world, which give the venerable story of the older sibling rising to the challenge of rescuing a young one from danger a new twist. Other books in the series are Gilbert the Great and Gilbert in Deep.

Nobody's Business? Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford

"Okay, then, who are you?" her husband asked.

At that moment something--or somebody--came over me. I felt a kind of electric charge race from the top of my head down to my silver lightning-bolt tennis shoes as the answer popped into my brain....

I pumped up my chest and tossed my cape. I stood with my legs apart and put my fists on my waist. Then, with the biggest, bravest smile I had never smiled before, I proudly announced: "You can call me Captain Nobody."

Ten-year-old Newton Newman is short and skinny and virtually invisible to everyone but his family, especially his football star big brother Chris, and his two also ignored friends, J.J. and Cecil. "I didn't know Chris Newman had a brother!" most people say when Newt claims to be related to the awesome quarterback of the Fillmore High Ferrets.

And when Chris is knocked into a coma scoring the winning touchdown against their crosstown rivals, the Merrimac Chargers, Newt becomes even more the forgotten man. Tag-teaming their stays at the hospital with the unconscious Chris, his parents are not home most of his waking hours, and with Halloween approaching and his old cowboy costume in tatters, Newt is on his own to come up with Halloween trick-or-treat gear. J.J. insists that to get some attention the three should dress as their own "inner person," and she appears in a self-designed glittering black and silver gown as Queen Splendida. Cecil is togged out as the young Mozart in green velvet knee breeches, but all Newton can come up with is a ragtag collage of his big brother's outgrown red sweatpants, silver sneakers, and a cape hastily fashioned from a windbreaker tied over his shoulders. But when the creative J.J. snatches up one of Chris' monogrammed sweatbands, snips out eyeholes, and pulls it over his head, Newt feels himself suddenly transformed.

When I turned and saw myself in the front room mirror, I caught my breath.

Because it wasn't me.

The thin strip of fabric that hid my face had turned me into someone I didn't recognize. And--this was even weirder--from inside looking out, I felt protected. Hidden, even.

At the first house they visit, Newt adlibs a name to match the monogram on his mask and Captain Nobody is born. Buoyed by his empowering alter ego, Newt wears the costume to school the next day and discovers that everyone seems to treat him differently. And, mysteriously but serendipitously, being Captain Nobody changes Newt into a somebody. It seems that Captain Nobody is always in the right place at the right time to become a hero. He helps a lost and frightened old man home, foils a jewelry store robbery, and, chasing the high school's mascot Ferocious the Ferret across a busy highway, stops traffic just in time for a disabled small plane to make an emergency landing on the suddenly empty stretch of asphalt.

Newt manages to keep his identity secret from the press through these adventures, but as Captain Nobody seems to take on a life of his own, events begin to spiral beyond his control until suddenly he finds himself--always terrified of heights--climbing the town's dilapidated water tower ladder on a mission to save a life. Being a superhero is hard, but Newt finds that he has the right stuff inside, even when it comes to finding a way to rouse his big brother from his coma at the hospital.

Dean Pitchford's latest, Captain Nobody (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009), tells the story of the quintessential little guy who proves to himself that he, too, is somebody--a city-wide hero that makes his all-star big brother proud to introduce himself as "Newton Newman's big brother."

Dean Pitchford, author of the hilarious and highly reviewed The Big One-Oh (reviewed here), in his former show-biz persona the author of songs such as "Footloose," and "Fame," manages to cover family emergencies, school bullies, self-esteem issues, crooks, and death-defying disasters, keeping all these balls deftly in the air while delivering a poignant, yet hilarious second novel which will have reluctant readers flying through this slender page turner. Fans of Dan Gutman's guy stories will find Captain Nobody one of their favorite action figures.

Bye-Bye, Baby Brother! Mail Harry to the Moon by Robie H. Harris

Before there was Harry,
There was ME!

Before Harry, nobody in my family spit up smelly, yucky, cheesey stuff.
Yesterday Harry did, so I said...

FLUSH HARRY DOWN THE TOILET!

To the disgruntled and obviously jealous preschooler, Harry is nothing but a mess-making spoiler, sent to take slobbery bites out of his banana, chew on his gorilla's nose, and usurp Grandma's lap. Big brother, of course, knows what is to be done about each transgression.

THROW HARRY IN THE TRASH!

STICK HARRY IN THE ZOO!

PUT HARRY BACK INSIDE MOMMY!

And when Harry start to scream late at night, there's just one thing left to do.

MAIL HARRY TO THE MOON!

But when big brother checks his laundry basket spacecraft, Harry is hiding almost unseen among the dirty clothes. Worried, Brother begins to search all the places of banishment. Toilet? No way. Trash can? Not a trace. In the tummy under Mommy's T-shirt? Noooo! Oh, gee. Could Mommy and Daddy really have mailed little Harry all by himself to the moon?

Big Brother readies his rocket ship, adjusts his colander helmet, and takes off to look for himself.

HARRY, I'M COMING!

Of course, when he lands, Brother finds little Harry where he's been all along, hiding right beside the basket. Placing him protectively in the front of his moon lander, the two blast back home, just in time for a fraternal snooze together, with Harry snuggling, head on his brother's shoulder, toy gorilla's foot in his little hand.

Before Harry was born, there was ME.
Now there's ME and HARRY!

Robie Harris' Mail Harry to the Moon is a gently humorous tale of sibling rivalry resolved. Michael Emberley's illustrations are at once both comical and emotionally evocative of the all-too-real feelings between first-born and second-born sons.