NUFF SAID

Taking up where Fairy Nuff (p. 801) leaves off, this equally madcap import features the world’s most expensive housewarming party, stampeding elephants, a humongous explosion, interspecies romance, and, as they say, much, much more. Having happened upon twenty thousand billion pounds in the previous episode, clever young Fairy Nuff decides to spend some of it on a castle, and considerably more of it hiring the Chinese National State Circus, Disneyland Paris, the wreck of the Titanic, Ayers Rock, the Space Shuttle and similar entertainments for a party, to whom everyone from the Queen to the President of the United States is invited. Unfortunately, not only has a dyslexic contractor mortared the new building with gunpowder rather than cement, but old Widow Buhiss, the money’s former owner, has escaped from prison to reclaim her nest egg and murder Fairy Nuff. The stage is set for—love? Yes, for while all of this is developing, so is a subplot involving a shy Javanese termite named Albert, and #287655439, a giddy member of a colony of displaced African elephant-eating ants. Deadpan caricatures on nearly every page reflect the zaniness of this surreal, loose-jointed farce; share it with young fans of Roald Dahl’s The Twits (1980) and suchlike. Though more sequels are almost certainly on their way, enuff is enuff for now. (Fiction. 9-11)