CAPTAIN CHEECH

Trite and self-serving as it was, comedian Marin’s first literary effort for young readers, Cheech the School Bus Driver (2007), at least carried a worthy Lesson; this sequel promotes winning through cheating. When his young passengers convert his school bus into a motorboat in order to race the (unmotorized) sailboat of classmate Vanessa, he eagerly joins in the fun. A sloshy ride and many encounters with sea life later, Cheech sees that the competitors are about to pull into the lead, and so snaps out the bus’s retractable “STOP” sign—which, of course, prevents Vanessa and crew from passing. Vanessa graciously concedes: “When I grow up, I want to be a bus driver just so I can have one of those stop signs. Then I’ll win all the races!” Putting the celebrity narrator, mouth agape beneath a bushy mustache, at the visual center of most scenes, Ramírez gives his cartoon figures oversized heads and eyes, along with a drastically limited range of expressions. The winning blurb photo’s not going to be enough to sell this. (Picture book. 6-8)