LUNCH BUDDIES

Wiseman serves up a fresh helping of wackiness in this second series installment.

What to do on this rainy Saturday? Poofy the dog and the nameless talking sandwich—both of whom readers will remember from the earlier book—convince Marco that video games are out (the sandwich lacks opposable thumbs), as is pranking sister Julia, who’s now a potential ally. Then the sun emerges, and Marco and the sandwich decide to perform a series of “nausea-amplifying” stunts for an audience consisting of Poofy, Julia, a garden gnome, and a manic squirrel. Marco propels the reluctant sandwich, perched on a skateboard, through the “tunnel of doom” (a rotting log). Unappreciative Julia grumbles about her interrupted reading. Next, Sandwich successfully skateboards off a ramp through a tire swing. The final, “stupendously spectacular” stunt induces even Julia to put down her book, and indeed it is heart-stopping. Initial success quickly turns to semi-disaster thanks to an unexpected application of Newtonian physics, a misplaced hammock, and an unexpected puddle. So many other laws of realism are broken that readers won’t bat an eye when things are miraculously put right. Previously overconfident Marco apologizes, showing an iota of the sandwich’s sense. Changes in perspective, like that from bird’s-eye to slug’s-eye views, add to the sophisticated absurdity of this romp. Marco and Julia are brown-skinned.

Breathtakingly improbable excitement.