Scribbly illustrations dominating nearly every spread, Layton’s latest plunks fledgling readers down amidst a student body of typical types who—atypically—happen to be mammoths, saber toothed tigers, ground sloths, cave bears and other early mammals. Unjustly blamed for stealing oranges from the pantry, woolly mammoth and indifferent student Oscar sets out to nail the real culprits: the nasty, brutish humans about whom the teachers have been warning everyone. As it turns out, those very humans are massing up in the snowy mountains for an attack on the Academy—but a wild careen down the mountainside aboard his newly invented skateboard scatters the invaders and restores Oscar’s good name. The decision by Oscar’s new friend Fox to go unwashed as long as possible leads to all sorts of stinky humor that fits right in to this second-tier series opener. (Fantasy. 8-10)
