Breakout at the Bug Lab (Penguin Young Readers, Level 3)

max, A Madagascar Cockroach, Is As Big As A Bite-sized Candy Bar And Hisses Like A Snake When He Is Mad. Leo And His Brother Are Fascinated. Out Of All Of The Bugs In Their Mother's Bug Lab, Max Is Definitely The Best. But Now, Max Is On The Loose In The Lab! To Make Matters Worse, There's A Party There Today. Leo And His Brother Have To Find Max Before He Makes People Scream-or Worse.

a Book In Which Everything Is Just Right. (school Library Journal)

susie Wilde - The Five Owls

it's Difficult To Find An I Can Read Book With Voice, Depth Of Character, Uniqueness, And Child Appeal. Horowitz Manages All Of These With Easy Readability. The First-person Narrator Of Her Book Is An Unnamed Young Boy Whose Mother Works In A Bug Lab. There She Examines Robber Flies, Checks Out Dung Beetles Who Eat Animal Poop, And Cares For Max, The Pride Of The Lab. Max, A Hissing Cockroach From Madagascar, Is As Big As A Bite-sized Candy Bar And The Young Boy Considers Him A Pet. In A Few Short Pages, Horowitz Manages To Give Readers A Sense Of A Science Lab, The Affable Relationship Between A Mom And Her Two Sons, The Habits Of Max And His Insect Compadres, And A Young Boy's Fascination With A Pet That Makes People Scream. We Know Much About This Young Boy Through His Own Words. He Is Responsible And Kind. For Instance, Though His Mother's New Haircut Makes Her Look Kind Of Like A Poodle, He Never Tells Her So. He Enjoys Observing And Taking Care Of Bugs; His Language Is Threaded With Bug-speak. He's Afraid, For Example, At Max's Escape That His Mother Will Be As Mad As A Fire Ant. Horowitz's Breezy Style Heralds A Fast-moving Plot Which Quickly Thickens When Max Escapes And Ruby L. Gold, A Bug-loving Dignitary, Arrives To Be Honored With A Special Ceremony. Whom Should She Meet First But The Two Brothers Desperately Trying To Get Max Off The Ceiling While They Avoid Their Poodle-haired Mother. But Ruby Screams With Delight, Not Fear. It Turns Out She's Handy With A Rubber-band, Was Once Called One-shot Lil, And It's Her Accurate Aim That Gets Max Off The Ceiling And Back Into His Cage. There's A Witty Tone That Foretells Fun. Horowitz Is As Fond Of Bug Wordplay As Her Hero.she Also Understands How Young Readers Love To Laugh At Slapstick And Slightly Disgusting Subjects. The Narrator's Younger Brother Burps During Boring Speeches, And There's Even A Banana Peel In One Scene Though, Amazingly, No One Slips On It. Word And Situational Humor Are Reinforced By Holub's Pictures. In One Illustration, For Example, Magnified Comic Fat White Grubs Smile At Readers From Under A Microscope. Predictability, The Curse Of Many Works Of Fiction, Is Almost A Must In This Genre. Adult Readers Won't Be Surprised At Lil's True Identity. Younger Readers Might Not Be Either, But At Their Age, Knowing More Than The Characters Will Please Them. Horowitz Manages To Give Beginning Readers All The Supportive Conventions They Expect With A Book That Reads Aloud So Well, It Won't Bug Adults Either! 2001, Dial, 48 Pages,