The Secrets of Ms. Snickle's Class
Hornik's rather meandering debut children's book introduces an  unorthodox teacher who has only one classroom rule: "No telling  secrets." Ms. Snickle acknowledges the importance of secrets and  keeping them, and announces that "Secrets are precious and  sometimes a bit fragile, so be careful!" Her own secret is that  after school is dismissed each day, she pushes a button that  transforms the classroom into her home (one of the desks even  morphs into her pet cat). Lacey, the class busybody, sets out to  learn and reveal each of her classmates' secrets (which she  does, a bit too easily). They range from the absurd to the  ordinary: Eva, who lives in the park, used to be a swan;  Dennis's mother is the tooth fairy; Oliver was so nervous the  night before the first day of school that he wet his bed; and  Hayley's secret is that she's allergic to secrets. Though Hornik  interjects some amusing scenarios and wordplay into her  narrative, much of the silliness seems strained (for instance,  the teacher suggests a "Gross Brother and Sister Contest" to see  whose sibling is the grossest), and the author never explains  why Ms. Snickle and Eva exist in a world of magic, while the  rest of the characters are normal. In a disappointingly facile  ending, after her students lament the fact that their secrets  are out in the open, Ms. Snickle reverses the revelations by  conducting a lesson in "forgetting." Ages 7-10. (Apr.)Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.