Look out world, Elvin Bishop is back, and he's better--if a little less bigger--than ever. Author Chris Lynch's overweight antihero has slimmed down a bit since his debut in Slot Machine, and has moved from the frying pan of sports camp into the fires of high school. With the help of his two best friends, Frankie and Mike, Elvin prepares to conquer the hormone-drenched horrors of ninth grade. Almost immediately he finds himself dealing with a bad case of hemorrhoids ("No, it doesn't hurt much... run and find me a tree branch that's on fire and I'll show ya"), surviving a traumatizing trip to the Big & Tall men's store, and suffering a close encounter of the heartbreaking kind. But when the going gets tough, at least Elvin knows he can depend on his offbeat mom to empathize--even though her loving advice is often given with more than a few grains of sarcasm.

With this second Elvin tale, Lynch has once again hit the funny bone on the head. Teens (if they can stop giggling long enough) will appreciate his graceful way of making adolescent pain evoke sympathetic chuckles. His hilarious portrayal of the nightmare that is young adulthood ("Young adult. You know that one was dreamed up by an old adult") makes clear that rather than poking fun at teens' woes, Lynch is laughing right alongside them. (Ages 12 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert