Slombo the Gross

``Right over by the dump, just behind the dirty part of the highway, lives a truly disgusting guy named Slombo the Gross,'' begins Greenblat's ( Aunt Ippy's Museum of Junk ; Uncle Wizzmo's New Used Car ) latest offbeat tale. One day this peculiar green fellow (who hasn't had a bath since he was three) ambles through the dump to the supermarket, where he creates his usual chaos by knocking over food displays. Suddenly the town is invaded by an army of skunks who have been driven from the forest by the Swamp Beast, a slimy being with 10 arms and seven eyes who ``smelled like old sneakers stuffed with dead fish.'' The Swamp Beast, Slombo learns, has left his swamp because men are carting away all the Tar Gum Nuts and leave him nothing to eat. When Slombo discovers that the Tar Gum Nuts are being brought to a factory for use in making diet soda, he for once manages to straighten out (rather than make) the mess, and becomes a town hero. Greenblat tidily slips an ecological message into his capricious caper, illustrated with his trademark funky, funny and brilliantly colored art. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)