MELONHEAD

In this spin-off from the Lucy Rose series, Lucy’s friend Melonhead, an adventurous, clever nine-year-old, takes center stage. Trouble is, he isn’t always forthcoming and is often heedless of the possible repercussions of his actions. He goes from being the school hero—for getting his foot stuck in a tree—to a bumbler and back again. While he and his buddy, Sam, create dud after dud for the school contest called “Reinvention,” they perpetrate a series of minor calamities (like plaster all over the bathroom) and secretly harbor a snake and a mouse. Discovery is unavoidable, though a stern conversation seems scant punishment, and Melonhead and Sam are able to combine all their recent experience to produce a crafty invention. The breezily paced text flows with wit and loads of jocular dialogue. Melonhead learns a thing or two from his mistakes, but it may give adults pause when he sums his scientific discoveries up with, “Umpteen wrongs equals one right.” (illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 8-12)