The Spaghetti-Slurping Sewer Serpent

K-Gr 2—Sammy Sanders is obsessed with a spaghetti-slurping sewer serpent and, with the help of his sister, Sally, is on a mission to find the creature. She spies what seems to be a clue and falls into the sewer, but to no avail. When Sammy decides to bait it with a bowl of spaghetti, he comes face-to-face with a gigantic beast with a lovable heart. Prismacolor colored pencil drawings depict the characters' developing dynamic. Unfortunately, there's not much detail to spice up the quickly realized plot, and the heavy focus on alliteration immediately grows cumbersome, bogging down the story line. "The sewer serpent slithers up to the scrumptious spaghetti and slurps it from a spork while swinging on the Sanders' squeaky swing." The author wrote this story "so children could practice the tricky letter S and be entertained at the same time." The result is disappointing.—Meg Smith, Cumberland County Public Library, Fayetteville, NC