The Ghastly Glasses

Gormley will elate readers with the sequel to Mail-Order Wings, in which 10-year-old Andrea Reves muddles through a second surreal adventure. During her parents' absence, Andrea and her brother Jim are in moony Aunt Bets's care and she mistakes the huge eye over a shop for the girl's optometrist. The place belongs to a psychic researcher who fits Andrea with glasses that give her disconcerting powers. The change Jim's ways of belittling her into such brotherly solicitude that it's stifling. They alienate Aunt Bets's affection for her old lazy cat; Andrea anguishes when the poor cat is dumped at the ASPCA. But the worst and funniest episode occurs when Andrea wishes the school principal empathized with kids and he outdoes the most delinquent student, raising unheard-of havoc. McCully's drawings add to the merriment and suspense. (711)