DEADLY! Books 1-6

Gleitzman and Jennings create yet another twisted episodic adventure for preteens. Sprocket, suffering from amnesia, wakes to find he’s naked, hunted by a group of child commandos and a group of nasty, flabby-fleshed middle-aged nudist exercisers. Amy deals with growing suspicions that her father is having an affair and that he has an illegitimate love child, whom her mother may have murdered. It all comes together in six outrageous sections, as the young heroes encounter a variety of villains and appalling problems. Francis Greenslade and Melissa Eccleston perform the alternately voiced chapters with gusto. They deftly handle hyperbole, improbable situations, bathroom humor, nasal excreta, vomitus, and the other heaps of disgusting goop liberally deposited throughout, making DEADLY! a surefire draw for younger kids. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 05]