Here Comes Heavenly

This lively launch title for a series of the same name introduces a punk Mary Poppins with spiky, purple hair, gold hoops through an eyebrow and nostril, tattoos on her arms and more than a few tricks up the short sleeves of her tight black T-shirt. This is Heavenly Litebody, who unexpectedly appears one morning and announces to Kit and her siblings that she is their new nanny. The second of five children in a Brady Bunch-style family, Kit (whose workaholic parents are away on business trips) can't figure out who hired Heavenly or how she circumvented the house's sophisticated alarm system. But this 14-year-old narrator soon discovers that these are just the first of many unexplained goings-on surrounding the funky, seemingly omniscient nanny who slyly manages to foil all attempts to disobey her. Heavenly also has the power to effect the positive (e.g., out of the blue, lovestruck Kit receives a phone call from the boy of her dreams; her parents suddenly agree to get a dog). Spiced with amusing repartee, Strasser's (the Help! I'm Trapped In... series) latest is light fare that goes down easily. Ages 11-14. (Oct.)