Soup Ahoy
Grade 3-6-In this 13th adventure in the series, Peck returns to the rural Vermont town of his childhood. Rob and his neighbor Luther Wesley Vinson, a.k.a. Soup, are devotees of a radio show starring Sinker O. Sailor. When a contest is announced by the show's advertiser involving an essay and a ridiculous number of cereal boxtops, Rob and Soup respond with enthusiam worthy of a megabucks lottery drawing. They win, of course, and prepare for Sinker O. Sailor to pay them and their hometown a visit. How the boys build a boat, help put on a festival, save Sinker's career, and outwit their enemies make for hilarious reading. Silly and coincidental, it's impossible not to smile at the boys' antics. Peck makes wonderful use of alliteration; indeed, he's a master at this stylistic device. With 60 books to his credit, another success is no surprise.Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, MECopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.