LENNY AND MEL

Newcomer Kraft treads unafraid through Scieszka and Pinkwater territory with these holiday misadventures, perpetrated on, or by, clueless twins (fraternal ones, to judge from the stick figure illustrations) Lenny and Mel. Lenny’s the smart one, though that’s not saying much; it’s Mel who goes trick-or-treating as a box, but forgets to cut eyeholes, and guess whose pillow the Thanksgiving leftovers are piled under in hopes of attracting “The Leftover Fairy.” It takes two, though, to find just the right snack for Santa (“ ‘ja-la-peñ-o’ . . . ‘I think it means “super cheese’ ”), or to create giant heads of Washington and Lincoln for Presidents’ Day that do double duty as shatterproof piñatas on “Cinco de My, Oh, My.” Linty leftovers aside, the author goes more for droll humor than cheap laffs or grossness. An impromptu neighborhood Flag Day parade, flagless but enthusiastic, caps this promising, easy-reading eye-roller. (Fiction. 7-9)