Scumble

Law follows her Newbery Honor–winning debut, Savvy, with a look at another family in which "thirteenth birthdays were like time bombs." It's been nine years since Mibs Beaumont's tumultuous 13th, and the spotlight now finds her cousin Ledge Kale. Ledge's "savvy"—inadvertently (and explosively) dismantling objects—has just hit, disastrously, when his family must travel from Indiana to Wyoming for a wedding. The setting allows Law to revisit the wacky clan, from Ledge's Uncle Autry, a sort of insect whisperer, and Autry's twin daughters, Marisol and Mesquite, who can levitate things up and down, left and right, "like two knobs of an Etch A Sketch." However, Ledge's talent is "as useless as a pogo stick in quicksand," so it's up to Mibs's brother Rocket to mentor him on "scumbling," a finesse move that turns problem savvies into assets. Rocket and Ledge both have romantic entanglements, and although Ledge's is unconvincing, it figures prominently in the plot. The story's chief appeal lies in Law's talents as a yarn-spinner, and the worth-repeating message about making peace with who you are. Ages 8–12. (Aug.)