A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PLACE

Wiseguy Winnipegian Johnny Nesbit is again trapped in the Strangers' green-skied land in this thin but occasionally raunchy sequel to The Same Place but Different (1995). Cheryl Zennor, a lonely orphan who has been kidnapped by scheming Thomas Rhymer to take care of dozens of unwanted children who are being gradually transformed into flying dogs, unwittingly summons her favorite classmate with a magic device. Snatched from his bed, Johnny wakes up naked and bug-sized, looking at Cheryl's relatively huge eyeball. Understandably, it takes him a while to get his bearings, but, drawing on experiences in his previous adventure, he's soon casting about for ways to rescue himself, the children, and Cheryl—to whom he quickly becomes attached. The job gets done, but only after a long ramble about Rhymer's estate, punctuated by occasional slapstick set pieces involving careless magic, clothes or a sudden lack thereof, Johnny's encounter with a mammoth pizza, and the like. Nodelman ably exploits the comic possibilities of being tiny in a Brobdingnagian world, but the plot wanders aimlessly and relies so heavily on characters and incidents from the previous book that frequent pauses for backfilling are mandatory. The farcical bits and Johnny's sarcasm may appeal to some readers, but this weak outing is better in its parts than its sum. (Fiction. 10-13)