THE SPOON IN THE BATHROOM WALL

Martha lives in the boiler room of the Horace E. Bloggins School. Her father Luther Snapdragon is the put-upon janitor always at the beck and call of the principal, Dr. Klunk. She loves her wizard of a science teacher Mrs. Ferlin, but is always on the run from school bully Rufus. Usually dark, dismal and awful, the school becomes a complete madhouse when the words “THE KING IS COMING – AND IT’S ABOUT TIME” appear on the wall. Soon after, the handle of a gem-encrusted spoon extrudes from the wall of the boys bathroom. A note accompanying the spoon indicates that the person who pulls it from the wall will be the king of the school. The story ends in the way such stories do. The villains are laughable, the characters cardboard and the logic lacking in this strained mixture of Arthurian legend and Lemony Snicket. Only for the largest collections. (Fiction. 8-12)