“Flush,” by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf, 263 pages, $16.95)
The second young adult thriller from Newbery Honor-winner Hiaasen involves a little potty comedy – the title refers to a casino boat illegally dumping raw sewage into the ocean – and an assortment of loonies, both good and bad. Hiaasen’s characters are so weird that if he didn’t live and work among their real-life doppelgangers – in South Florida, a normal person is an aberration – readers might accuse him of writing over the top.
The protagonist, Noah, takes after his dad, a semi-regular at the local pokey, cheerfully doing time for extreme activism. Previous spells in jail resulted from flattening the tires of a behemoth Winnebago whose owner was whipping dogs with a bungee cord, and wrapping an unscrupulous fisherman in his own illegal gill net.
This time, Noah’s dad gets caught sinking the Coral Queen casino ship in a misguided effort to encourage the boat’s owners to pay for legal sewage disposal.
With Dad out of commission and Mom ticked off – “My mother says that being married to my father is like having another child to watch after, one who’s too big and unpredictable to put in time out” – Noah assumes the job of outing the Coral Queen’s stinky tricks.
And when Noah’s unconventional solution fails to persuade the officials to tag the owners, justice finds an improbable server. Ages 12 and up.
“The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs,” by Betty G. Birney, illustrations by Matt Phelan (Atheneum, 224 pages, $16.95)
Home may be humble, but as anyone who has deep-cleaned closets can testify, it’s full of unpredictable surprises. Young Eben itches to leave dinky Sassafras Springs, Mo., preferably to tour the Seven Wonders of the World, the topic of his favorite book, although he would settle for Colorado.
Eben’s dad offers a deal: Find seven wonders in Sassafras Springs, and he’ll send Eben to visit his relatives in the Rockies. Desperate to leave but doubtful about local miracles, Eben dutifully sets out to interview neighbors and others in his inventory of local marvels.
And wonder after wonder, he finds the extraordinary in his ordinary world. Author Birney conjures just enough fancy in the phenomena Eben discovers to nudge readers into pondering what rarities lie in their own backyards. Ages 9 to 12.
“You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!” by Fiona Rosenbloom (Hyperion, 288 pages, $15.99)
At the brink of the Jewish ceremony that recognizes her coming of age, Stacy Friedman waffles between self-indulgence and self-awareness.
Stacy pictures herself posing in a fatally chic dress, fawned upon by her (as yet) unrequited love object and friends.
This image clangs unpleasantly against the horrific reality of the Bridezilla-ette gown her mother picks out and the discovery that her best friend is swapping spit with Stacy’s crush.
Can Stacy stop herself before she devolves from Jewish American Princess into Drama Queen? The answer is as extravagant as the question. Ages 12 and up.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
