WEIRD STORIES FROM THE LONESOME CAFE

The “Help Wanted” sign in a cafe window draws some unusual applicants in this breezy, tongue-in-cheek middle reader from the author of Mean Mean Maureen Green (1999). As proprietor/struggling writer Uncle Clem insists that nothing worth noting ever happens along their stretch of Nevada road, young Sam serves up a peanut-butter/fried-banana/bacon sandwich to a man with a pink Cadillac and blue suede shoes (“ ‘Thank you,’ drawled the man. ‘Thank you very much.’ ”) and a vanilla shake to a jolly vacationer from way up north (“Red cheeks: check. White beard: check. Round little belly: check. No. It couldn't be!”). Then an oversized dust devil delivers a girl with a dog (“ ‘I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.’ ”) and helps rescue a small green traveler from a—vehicle—that crashes nearby (“ ‘Can't understand a word he says,’ said Uncle Clem. ‘Must be from out of state.’ ”) And these aren't the only visitors. Kidd supplies a generous array of vignettes and full-page cartoons, adding both fun and visual clues to the identities of these new employees. Though the Lonesome Cafe can't match Cynthia Rylant's Van Gogh Cafe (1995) for marvelous goingson, this will be a hit with young children, as well as reluctant readers old enough to twig to the cultural references. (Fiction. 7-9)