Snivel: The Fifth Circle of Heck

March 15, 2012
Grades 4-7 Dead sibs Milton Fauster and his goth big sister, Marlo, save the world againthis time from a scheme by mad scientist Nikola Tesla to power a return to life with the souls of unsuspecting video-gamers. Along the way, Milton and Marlo also help to scotch nemesis Bea Elsa Bubb's plot to replace Satan as the chief of H-E-double-hockey-sticks, but are consigned for the next episode to Precocia, a circle where they will have to be premature adults. As usual, there's quick action amid a relentless barrage of puns, double entendres, and shtick with, plainly, more to come.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2012
In this fifth of Basye's spoofs on purgatory, the Grin Reaper guides Milton Fauster and his sister, Marlo, to Snivel, a mosquito-ridden, rain-plagued camp for crybabies and the perpetually unhappy. But when the camp's depressed denizens--Marlo included--begin to disappear, Milton sets out to find them. The book's constant clever wordplay and witty references will make happy campers out of readers.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)