Reiss (How Murray Saved Christmas) once again unleashes his knack for catchy, if occasionally forced, rhymes in another slapstick outing. Ned, when stumped at what to bring to school for show and tell resorts to a homemade Rube Goldberg contraption he dubs a "Word Mix-up Ray." His invention transforms his "aunt" into a "tuna," the grocer's "peas" into "apes" and his classmates, well—"He made Brian
a brain, with a big throbbing thinker,/ Changed Nat
to an ant
and made Kristen
a stinker." A catastrophic field trip to the art museum finds Ned gleefully modifying the gallery ("making piecrust
from pictures
that hung on the walls," among other things), but eventually he finds a way to reverse the damage. Reiss's anagrams and corny light verse will appeal to a punchy sense of humor, but Cressy's colored pencil illustrations fare less well. Brisk, stylized cartoons reveal the artist's roots as an animator, but a grayish cast to the overall coloration dulls the spreads. It's an entertaining excursion nonetheless. Ages 5-up. (Sept.)
