Fred and Anthony's Horrible, Hideous Back-to-School Thriller

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5

In their fourth adventure, slackers Fred and Anthony, having escaped from the Netherworld, are ready to return to Sunny Babbling Brook Elementary for another school year. To their horror, they find many changes: their doughnut-eating gym teacher has been replaced by a fitness fanatic, the cafeteria now serves arugula and oatmeal sandwiches instead of Pez and Chex Mix, and their new classroom teacher is obsessed with both testing and orthopedic footwear. When a new student arrives and mysterious accidents start to occur, the boys know it can only mean one thing: disgruntled spirits from the Netherworld want revenge. Fred and Anthony must journey there once more to return their school to normal. This title has the same mixed format as the previous books (blocks of text broken up with illustrations and cartoon-style panels), and a whirlwind summary of the first three adventures updates readers who aren't familiar with them. It's high on action with little development of character or setting. Although there's plenty of bodily humor, some of the jokes seem to be aimed more at adults: Do children even know what Earth shoes are? Consider this if the other titles are popular or if kids need something to read after they've exhausted all the "Captain Underpants" titles.-Jackie Partch, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR