WINCHELL MINK

Young puts a background in screenwriting and standup comedy to relentless use in this surreal children’s debut. As if a regular (offstage) drubbing from goons led by Clayton Moore, an honor student who can dis in Latin as easily as English, isn’t enough, pipsqueak Winchell Mink finds himself on a tiny ledge partway down a high cliff, after which he undergoes a quick series of body switches: with Clayton, with a dinosaur, with his box turtle Hannibal, and with kindergartener Bobby Dungermutt, dubbed with perfect accuracy, “Plungerbutt.” The exchanges are all in service to repeated exercises in the value of being true to oneself—a lesson that the author deftly slips into a barrage of one-liners (“I rolled my eyes. Luckily, they didn’t roll far . . .”) and silly set pieces, all of which are gathered into bite-sized chapters and capped by a predictable reconciliation. Children used to the quick pace and sometimes-gross humor of the Captain Underpants series will feel at home in Winchell’s world. Watch out for sequels. (Fiction. 9-11)