Reviews

Gr 3-6 A second Nelson Malone adventure similar to Nelson Malone Meets the Man from Mush-Nut (Lodestar, 1986). His current ``trips to the fantastic'' amount to encountering a real ghost on Halloween who scares away the town bully; finding out that a reportedly mean teacher is actually quite nice; and discovering dinosaur eggs at the museum hatching. Nelson is also actually needed to help his favorite rock group perform their song and again needed to save an airplane from crashing when the pilot and crew suffer from food poisoning. Hawes employs comical elements in her description of the adventures; these elements should appeal to readers' sense of humor and enhance their enjoyment of the absurd. Although the individual episodes are not that memorable, children who enjoyed the first book will also enjoy this one. Blair Christolon, Prince William Library, Manassas, Va.