THE GREAT BURGER-LAND DISASTER

What happens when an expert cook with his own catering business goes to work for Scarsdale's Burgerland. Mike, 15, needs the money to buy a bike when the one he's used for deliveries is ripped off. But he brings his own lunch to work and his boss Metro is so impressed that soon the two transform the burger factory's menus. Local writeups lead to one in the New York paper, praising the food and the ""campy"" fast-food decor, but Burgerland execs see the departure differently and the fame puts Mike and Metro out of work. Through all this Mike is also balancing a home life with a mother (called ""Ms"") in Scarsdale and a father in a Soho loft. Unlike many juvenile authors, Levine can handle a Soho loft or a plant-shop couple (Ms's Scarsdale tenants) without turning them into clichÉs, and she gives Mike a voice that a reasonably aware kid can relate to. Unfortunately, she doesn't make much of the Burgerland developments and doesn't do enough with Mike's difficulties in accepting his parents' separation to warrant switching to that concern at the end. As a result, a construction readers have come to put their faith in just sort of falls apart.