The Transmogrification of Roscoe Wizzleby David Elliott
Publishers Weekly
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Elliott's (The Cool Crazy Crickets) entertaining and energetic middle-grade novel stars fourth-grader Roscoe Wizzle (whose greatest fear is that "a comet will strike the earth when I am in the bathtub"). He leads a fairly ordinary life, despite his quirky parents (Waldo, a cymbal tester, and Wilma, who grew up in an orphanage) and their practice of serving him alternating dinners of mashed potatoes and tuna surprise ("When I was an orphan, I never got any kind of surprise at all," Wilma tells him). But after a Gussy's Restaurant franchise is built atop an empty lot which is rumored to be oddly polluted, strange things start happening. First, Roseville's children begin disappearing. Then, after months of nightly meals at Gussy's (his relieved parents find it a good alternative to cooking), Roscoe finds himself undergoing a Kafka-esque metamorphosis. Could it be his steady diet of Jungle Drums ("just about the biggest hamburgers in the world")? With the help of his brainy best friend, the vegetarian and junior anthropologist Kinshasa Rosa Parks Boomer, Roscoe solves the mystery and helps rescue his kidnapped schoolmates. Colorful plot twists and character names from Roscoe's teacher, Bernard W. Pinchbeck, to Judy Pongarongatong combine with sassy first-person narration and snappy dialogue to skew the proceedings a few thoroughly enjoyable degrees off normal. Ages 7-10. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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School Library Journal
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Gr 3-5-When a well-known hamburger chain establishes a franchise in Roseville, 10-year-old Roscoe Wizzle is ecstatic, for his culinarily-impaired parents begin sending him to the fast-food restaurant every night for dinner. Eventually, though, his happiness is destroyed when he realizes he is beginning to resemble a bug. It turns out that mutant insects are getting into the meat-grinder at Gussy's, turning habitual eaters of the burgers into bugs, a fact that the nefarious owners try to hide by kidnapping the victims. Luckily, the villains' dastardly deeds, past and present, are revealed and punished, the children de-transmogrify, and Roscoe's parents learn to cook. The wacky plot and quirky details, reminiscent of Daniel Pinkwater's work, will appeal to young and reluctant readers who like their fiction light and offbeat. The pace is quick, the tone is humorous, and if most of the characters are painted with a very broad and shallow brush and the plot requires a strenuous suspension of disbelief, kids will be too busy relishing the adventure to care.-Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public LibraryCopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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