BUG BLONSKY AND HIS SWAMP SCOUT SURVIVAL GUIDE

Bug Blonsky isn’t known for his positive attitude.

While he’s on a camping trip, Bug makes a list of “Terrible Things To Avoid,” which includes several of the other scouts along with “rubbery hot dogs,” “rabbit poop,” and “the outhouse.” Fans of bathroom humor will be very fond of this novel. But Bug has one idealistic quality. He believes that Bigfoot “for sure is totally 100 percent real.” This does very little to improve his relationships with the other campers, who tend to say that Bigfoot doesn’t exist—or walk into the Bigfoot trap Bug has set outside the bunkhouse. But by the end of the story, some of those campers are nominating him for a Steadfast Scout patch for his faith and bravery. Anyone who loved the first Bug Blonsky book, which was crammed with frogs and armpit farts, will find the same sort of jokes here, but they may also love the moments of sweetness. There are surprisingly—shockingly—many. The style of illustration, however, is very much the same. The characters are essentially very elaborate stick figures, with one important difference: Their ears are drawn right near the bottoms of their faces, as in the old song “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” Many of the main characters are White, including Bug, but Bug’s best friend, Louie, is Black.

This novel has just enough farts that no one will accuse it of being mushy.