WHAT DO FISH HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?

Avi (Finding Providence, p. 56, etc.) has experimented with virtually every literary form; here the versatile veteran returns to short fiction with seven thoughtful tales. In the title story a sixth grader's melancholy in the wake of his father's departure breaks when a street person offers a cure for unhappiness; the light tone of the following tale, "The Goodness of Matt Kaizer," in which a daredevil minister's son learns, to his regret, that he's fundamentally a decent sort, gives way to the eeriness of "Talk To Me," about a telephone that takes to ringing at exactly 4:00—but no one is on the line. In other episodes, Eve's dead "Pets" return to rescue her from two demanding ghost cats, a seventh grader finds out "What's Inside" when he narrowly thwarts an older cousin's suicide, and Gregory realizes that a compliment makes a better "Teacher Tamer" than a stink bomb. Mitchell contributes small black-and-white chapter openers, mostly portraits, to each story. Appealingly varied in tone and narrative voice, rich in character insights, and replete with imaginatively presented ideas, these tales offer something to please almost everyone. (Short stories. 9-14)