EMILY AND THE WEREWOLF

Farmer Osboro turns into a werewolf when he's angry, but only Emily can see the transformation. What to do? Her mother, worried that the family grocery will go under once the new supermarket opens, is too distracted to be helpful. Turning to her grandmother, Emily is amazed to discover that she's a witch! Armed with Professor Whammo's Hypnosis For Beginners, Emily learns to shoot little lightning bolts from her eyes—very effective on schoolmates, but her confrontation with Farmer Osboro goes awry. About to be devoured, she desperately repeats a spell she heard Grandmother utter over lunch—and the creature turns into a barbecued sparerib. Pace contributes plenty of appropriately tongue-in-cheek cartoons to this lighter-than-air fantasy; Emily is portrayed as an erect, calm-featured child, while the doglike werewolf is more genial than menacing. Readers will enjoy Emily's heroics, but may be confused—and let down—by the ending: though a cat eats the sparerib, Farmer Osboro shows up later to thank Emily for freeing him from his affliction, and since he just happens to be related to the supermarket's owner, her mother has nothing to fear. A pleasant, if contrived, British import. (Fiction. 10-12)