CLEMENCY POGUE

This isn’t much of a story, but it has a certain cleverness, and it includes an irresistible scene of a bad little boy tearing apart a set of sofabed cushions, peeing on them, and then being stuck inside the folded, wet and shredded bedding. But we digress. Comprising equal parts Jasper Fforde and Lemony Snicket, the ten-year-old heroine Clemency slaughters an annoying stinging fairy by pulling the Peter Pan line about not believing in fairies. Unfortunately, by dint of repetition, she’s killed a handful of other fairies, too. A hobgoblin named Chaphesmeeso (this is a plot point, we swear) gives her the opportunity to make amends in Siberia, Utah and a few other places. The wordplay ranges from adorable to lame (“Clemency was aghast. In fact . . . two ghasts”). Petty is not above snurching from Cyrano de Bergerac (the golden bell hung in my heart poem is straight out of Rostand) nor a little heartfelt preaching: “Reading’s human magic.” Tasteless and mildly amusing. Try it on the ten-year-olds. (Fiction. 8-12)