Ever wonder why the vacuum breaks down just when the warranty runs out? The author of Uncle Fedya, His Dog, and His Cat (1993) offers an offbeat explanation: a little person lives in each appliance to maintain it but moves out on the expiration date. Unfortunately, with the exception of a recalcitrant cuckoo who gets lost early on, these promising personalities suffer from mechanical development. Some tension is generated by the trapping efforts of Tanya, a child in the home where the warranty people are marking time; but any clever twists are unraveled without much emotion. A conflict between the warranty people and the resident mice, which might have driven the book, breaks down more often than an unreliable car. With roughly shifting viewpoints and a stalling plot, this tongue-in-cheek poke at Russian politics is one offering on which the warranty has lapsed. (Fiction. 8-10)
