Snarf Attack, Underfoodle, and the Secret of Life: The Riot Brothers Tell All - Hardcover

Mary Amato is an award-winning children's book author, poet, playwright, and songwriter. Her books have been translated into foreign languages, optioned for television, produced onstage, and nominated for the children's choice awards in many states. She lives in Maryland.

Ethan Long has written and illustrated dozens of children's books. His accolades include a Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal. He lives in Florida.

Grade 2-5–Move over, Captain Underpants, a couple of new pranksters are in town. Narrated by fifth-grader Wilbur and featuring his third-grade brother, Orville, this hilarious story follows the antics of two boys with overactive imaginations and a comfortable sibling relationship. The action is divided into three "books," with six chapters each. In the first, the brothers are determined to catch a crook. They make a windfall by giving lessons in being annoying to their classmates, are reprimanded by the principal (who is also their mother), and still manage to foil a bank robber on the way home from school. Next, while searching for treasure, they find a mysterious box in the closet. After they finally open it, they discover that the contents, although not worth money, are still valuable. The final installment has the duo building a catapult designed to overthrow a king and using it instead to defeat a bully. A "Bonus" section sums up their philosophy of life ("Make something exciting happen every day") and includes the rules to their favorite games (in "Snarf Attack," one player attempts to get the other to laugh so hard during dinner that milk comes out of his nose). The large print is inviting and the black-and-white cartoons add to the light tone. Amato appeals to the funny bone without being quite as gross as the "Captain Underpants" series (Scholastic). Libraries will have a hard time keeping Snarf Attack on the shelf and readers will beg for a sequel.–Jean Lowery, Bishop Woods Elementary School, New Haven, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.