STICKS AND STONES AND SKELETON BONES

Still meeting in a mall while their school is being repaired (see Hobie Hanson: Greatest Hero of the Mall, 1989), Hobie's class learns about conflict resolution and has some novel interactions with an old-fashioned Santa. Hobie and best-friend Nick are seriously at odds: while procrastinating over his homework (the human skeleton), Hobie has not only inadvertently caused an embarrassing injury to Nick's nose with a trick snake but has laughed at Nick afterwards. Hobie believes that Nick has retaliated by shoving him down the escalator with Mort, a life-size plastic skeleton. Egged on by less-than-truthful classmates, they meet to fightonly to be forcibly separated by Molly. Authority's subsequent intervention is structured: two kids who've just finished a course in mediation are assigned to run through their new skills with the three combatants, who come out with both new insights and a model signed contract (included); most interestingly, Molly learns that aggressive intervention may not be constructive. With her usual stock of wordplay and funny situations, Gilson conveys her lesson with a light touch, deftly meshing it with a subplot concerning a kindly Santa who is uncomfortable with the new generation's style but learns that ``Kids will [still] be kids.'' Good fun; thought-provoking; sure-fire jacket. (Fiction. 8-11)