SECRETS OF A LAB RAT: NO GIRLS ALLOWED (DOGS OKAY)

Scab McNally is a 9-year-old inventor who armpit-farts the national anthem. His fraternal twin, Izzy, is so smart she skips a grade, but she still spies on her bad-boy brother. Trueit has packed this story with elementary-school crudeness—from snot-flicking and chairback-kicking, scab-picking and spit-wad-licking, to a poop-based formula Scab creates and sells to raise money for a dog. Narrator Oliver Wyman characterizes Scab with the rascally voice of the school cutup and gives Izzy a bit of dignity as she suffers a crisis of friendship. Wyman imbues his fifth-graders with Valley Girl accents and his fourth-grade bully with a petulant snarl, all of it done in an energetic tone that invites laughter. For fans of hard-core adolescent humor, this is as sweet as bug spit. M.M.C. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2009]