MIA, MATT AND THE LAZY GATOR

This early chapter book is a somewhat awkward translation from the French original. Twins Mia and Matt head to their Uncle Orlando’s summer cottage, as they do every year. Orlando is a famous animal trainer, and the twins can’t wait to see what sort of animal his current project involves, especially since he often needs their help to get the creatures to cooperate. The twins are stunned to discover that this year’s mammoth task is to train an alligator to dance, and, as Mia and Matt feared, it is not going well. To complicate things further, Orlando is distracted by his “charming sweetheart,” Maria, and even Matt has gotten bitten by the love bug. Mia devises a plan to get things back on track with the gator Gabe, but it turns out that Gabe is the one with the bigger surprise in store. Though the design and layout suggest a young target audience, the advanced vocabulary (writhe, posterity and discreetly all appear on a single page) as well as the romantic focus—sweethearts, smooches and spooning all making an appearance—will make this one a hard sell to the early elementary crowd. (Fiction. 6-9)