HARRY THE POISONOUS CENTIPEDE

Banks (Angela and Diabola, p. 716, etc.) may be pushing the envelope again, this time with a protagonist who is young, poisonous, and many-legged. Contrary to what readers might expect, Harry's quite a winning fellow, for a centipede. He's devoted to his mother, Belinda, but he doesn't always heed her warnings about the ``no-top-world'' above their burrow. Humans pose the biggest danger, and the most forbidden place is the ``Up-Pipe,'' which leads directly into a human's shower. Egged on by his reckless friend, George (who calls him a ``sissyfeelers''), Harry does venture into the no-top-world, and the two centis triumphantly drag home a mole cricket for dinner. When foolish George tempts fate by following a human, Harry runs for Belinda, who saves the day by biting the human on the leg. Later, though, when circumstances force both Harry and George into the Up-Pipe, they have to muster their wits to save their own lives and Belinda's, too. With considerable humor and well-placed details, Banks draws readers into a centipede's-eye view of the world. Ross's sprightly black-and-white line drawings convey all the action and an array of centipede emotions. (Fiction. 8+)