SPY MICE

A spectacular follow-up to The Black Paw reunites Morning Glory Goldenleaf and her timorous techie beau Bunsen Burner—both certified agents of Spy Mice, with the silver popsicle-stick skateboards to prove it—with their human co-agents, 6th-graders Oz and D.B. As Oz’s recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip bread (unfortunately not included) carries him and D.B. to the finals of the Mayflower Flour Bake-Off in New York City, Spy Mice learn that archenemy rat Roquefort Dupont has gathered a congress of European rat kingpins in the same city to form the Global Rat Round Table. But in a development far more threatening to the balance of power between mice and rats, he’s no longer proudly illiterate. Frederick develops this promising setup perfectly, adding a diminutive rock-and-roll band, a pair of human bullies from the previous episode who once again end up thoroughly and publicly humiliated and other delicious features, then propelling events to a climactic face-off aboard a float at the Thanksgiving Day Parade. A delight for fans of Avi’s Mayor of Central Park (2003), Holm and Hamel’s Stink File series and like interspecies thrillers. (Fiction. 10-12)