Frankenfrog

With mixed results, the brother-and-sister team behind Mr. Bumble revisit a B-movie staple. This mock-horror story begins in the lab, where Dr. Franken is whipping up a ""hyper-sizing tonic, which worked wonders on lollipops."" The tonic has other effects, too: It turns an ordinary insect into ""a hideous hyperfly--a droolish, ghoulish creature"" that quickly starts ""multiflying"" into scores of buzzing pests. Dr. Franken, with sparse hair standing on end and eyeballs spiraling madly, giddily invents a solution to his bug problem. He creates a giant amphibian known as Frankenfrog, and the stiff-jointed, algae-green zombie lurches to the swamp, zapping flies with his electrified lightning-yellow tongue. Kim Kennedy challenges some Frankenstein conventions. Although Frankenfrog is not accepted among regular frogs, he wins Dr. Franken's loyalty by destroying the hyperfly. Good riddance, too: Doug Kennedy's chaotic illustrations present a scary, hairy villain with a slavering red tongue, scrawny body and multiple eyes. The monster theme, high-octane palette and goofy gags recall Dav Pilkey's work, but this book's grotesque slapstick doesn't succeed so well as Dogzilla's sillier take on monster myths. Ages 4-7. (Aug.)