If Pigs Could Fly

Take one fresh-faced innocent named Morgan James. Add a double-crossing rum-peddler, a biscuit-baking redhead with romantic intentions, a swarm of wild bees, a sleazy senator named Bagful and two Frenchmen in a balloon, and you have just a few of the raw ingredients for this whopper of a yarn. Loosely set at the tail end of the Battle of 1812, the novel chronicles young Morgan's escapades on his search for a preacher to hitch him to the luscious Annabel Lee. His quest eventually brings him to New Orleans, where he presents General Andrew Jackson with a dispatch from President Madison and singlehandedly defeats the 93rd Highland Regiment (all of whom are wearing kilts) with a runaway bee wagon (it's not hard to guess what the bees do), thereby winning the war. This tale brims with the same sort of screwball characters, fantastic situations and rattling pace found in a vintage Sid Fleischman story--and it's just as much fun. Ages 10-14. (Oct.)