Monday, September 13, 2010

The Big Stink-David Lubar

The Big Stink
David Lubar
Starscape (Tor), Aug 31 2010, $
ISBN: 9780765323439

Belgosi Upper Elementary has a mold problem that forces the class of ten-year olds to share a room with first graders. As humiliating as that is, the eighth graders soon join them in the crowded classroom.

No longer the “giants” in their new classroom Nathan Abercrombie the accidental zombie and his two best friends Abigail, and Mookie now must put up with Ridley the eighth grade bully who out-means his younger brother Rodney the bully. Meanwhile Nathan complains about the putrid odor that he feels is all over town. He and his BFFs begin to investigate the cause of the foul odor that he believes might be emanating from RABID; while Abigail and her Uncle Dr. Cushing seek a cure for Nathan’s rotting limbs and organs, and Mookie reads comic books seeking clues on living life to the fullest as a zombie. While all that is going on, there is also Nathan’s trashy mission for BUM.

The fourth Abercrombie tweener zombie (see Dead Guy Spy and Good Soup) is an amusing tale in which the middle school audience will enjoy the vividly gross humor as the young reader will smell The Big Stink and see the high level of vomit pollution. Yet with the smell of a decaying body and crass puns, fans will laugh throughout that is when they hold back the bile.

Harriet Klausner

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