Babe Ruth & the Home Run Derby

These two slight tales get the All-Star Meatballs series off to a less than stellar start. The plots center on a caricature-studded group of Bayview school students who, even though they're not jocks, they are into sports. They earn their culinary appellation in the first title, when they become involved in a lunchtime food fight involving flying meatballs. Such slapstick scenes are scattered throughout the story, which climaxes in a school-wide contest to determine who can hit a baseball the farthest. Bumbling Homer King, one of the Meatballs, is unwittingly pitted against a stereotypical bully for a predietable outcome. More substantive is the second title, in which Kate, a blind student, helps Alvin win a school wrestling match and turns into a heroine when a blackout occurs during the event. Though kid-pleasing silliness abounds, these are hardly Mooser's (My Secret Admirer; the Creature Club series) most memorable novels. Ulrich's undistinguished blackand-white illustrations do little more than underscore these antics. Ages 710. (Sept.)